w  ^  >■- 


f\ 


BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

JOSEPH  AND  MARY  TO  JAMES, 

THE   lord's   brother 
ALEXANDER  WHYTE,  D.D. 

AUTHOR   OF   'bUNYAN   CHARACTERS' 

'  lancelot    andrewes  '     '  jacob     behmen  ' 

*  santa    teresa  '    '  sir    thomas    browne  * 

'  Rutherford's  correspondents  * 

'  father   JOHN  'etc. 


\ 


PUBLISHED    BY 

FLEMING    H.    REVELL    COxMPANY 

NEW      YORK        CHICAGO        TORONTO 

^ubligfjcrs  of  Ebangelical  ELittraturc 


Fourth  Edition 
Completing  9000  Copies 


CONTENTS 


JOSEPH  AND  MARY  « 

SIMEON  •  • 

ZACHARIAS  AND  ELISABETH 


LXXIII. 

JOHN  THE  BAPTIST 

LXXIV. 

NICODEMUS     . 

V  T.YTV. 

PETER  . 

LXXVI. 

JOHN     . 

IJCXVII. 

MATTHEW 

LXXVIII. 

ZACCH^US        . 

LXXIX. 

LAZARUS 

LXXX.  THE  WOMAN  WITH  THE  ISSUE  OF  BLOOD 

LXXXI.  MARY  MAGDALENE 

LXXXII.  THE  MOTHER  OF  ZEBEDEe's  CHILDREN 

LXXXIII.  THE  WIDOW  WITH  THE  TWO  MITES       . 


rAGK 
I 

lO 

l6 

26 

36 
46 

57 
63 
72 
78 
87 

95 
104 
112 


viii  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

PAGS 

LXXXIV.    PONTIUS  PILATE .  .  .  •  •  .  121 

Lxxxv.   pilate's  wife 134 

LXXXVI.    HEROD  THAT  POX  ■»  ,  ,  .  .  142 

LXXXVII.    THE  PENITENT  THIEF  .  .  ,  .  .  I5I 

LXXXVIII.    THOMAS       ...  ...  1 59 

LXXXIX.    CLEOPAS  AND  HIS  COafPANION  .  .  .  1 68 

XC.    MATTHIAS  THE  SUCCESSOR  TO  JUDAS  ISCARIOT  177 

XCI.    ANANIAS  AND  SAPPHIRA         .  .  .  .  1 87 

XCII.    SIMON  MAGUS        -.  .  .  .  .  r  1 97 

♦^       XCIII.    THE  ETHIOPIAN  EUNUCH  ,  .  ,  .  208. 

XCIV.    GAMALIEL  .....  2l8 

XCV.    BARNABAS  ,  .  .  >  .  1  227 

XCVI.    JAMESj  THE  LORD's  BROTHER  .  .  237 


BIBLE   CHARACTERS 

LXX 

JOSEPH  AND  MARY 

[AINT  MATTHEW  and  Saint  Luke, 
the  first  and  the  third  Evangelists, 
tell  us  all  that  we  are  told  of  Mary. 
They  tell  us  that  she  was  the  espoused 
wife  of  Joseph  a  carpenter  of  Nazareth, 
and  that  the  Divine  Call  came  to  her  after  her 
espousal  to  Joseph  and  before  her  mamage.  What 
a  call  it  was,  and  what  a  prospect  it  opened  up ! 
No  sooner  was  Mary  left  alone  of  the  angel  than 
she  began  to  realise  something  of  what  had  been 
appointed  her,  and  what  she  must  now  prepare 
herself  to  pass  through.  The  sharp  sword  that  the 
aged  Simeon  afterwards  spoke  of  with  such  passion 
was  already  whetted,  and  was  fast  approaching  her 
devoted  and  exposed  heart.  On  a  thousand  sacred 
canvases  throughout  Christendom  we  are  shown 
the  angel  of  the  annunciation  presenting  Mary  with 
a  branch  of  lily  as  an  emblem  of  her  beauty  and  as 
a  seal  of  her  purity.  But  why  has  no  spiritual 
artist  stained  the  whiteness  of  the  lily  with  the  red 
blood  of  a  broken  heart .?  For  no  sooner  had  the 
transfiguring  light  of  the   angeFs   presence   faded 


ft  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

from  her  sight  than  a  deep  and  awful  darkness 
began  to  fall  upon  Joseph's  espoused  wife.  Surely 
if  ever  a  suffering  soul  had  to  seek  all  its  righteous- 
ness and  all  its  strength  in  God  alone,  it  wa^  the 
soul  of  the  Virgin  Mary  in  those  terrible  days  that 
followed  the  annunciation.  Blessed  among  women 
as  all  the  time  she  was;  unblemished  in  soul  and 
in  body  like  the  paschal  lamb  as  she  was ;  like  the 
paschal  lamb  also  she  was  set  apart  to  be  a  divine 
sacrifice,  and  to  have  a  sword  thrust  through  her 
heart.  Mary  must  have  passed  through  many  dark 
and  dreadful  days  when  all  she  had  given  her  to 
lean  upon  would  seem  like  a  broken  reed.  Hail, 
thou  that  art  highly  favoured  of  the  Lord,  the  angel 
had  said  to  her.  But  all  that  would  seem  but  so 
many  mocking  words  to  her  as  she  saw  nothing 
before  her  but  an  open  shame,  and,  it  might  well 
be,  an  outcast's  death.  And,  so  fearfully  and 
wonderfully  are  we  made,  and  so  fearful  and  wonder- 
ful was  the  way  in  which  the  Word  was  made  flesh, 
that  who  can  tell  how  all  this  may  have  borne  on 
Him  who  was  bone  of  her  bone,  and  flesh  of  her 
flesh ;  to  whom  Mary  was  in  all  things  a  mother,  as 
He  was  in  all  things  to  her  a  son.     For, 

Hers  was  the  face  that  unto  Christ  had  most  resemhlance. 

Great  is  the  mystery  of  godliness  :  God  manifest  in 
the  flesh.  A  man  of  sorrows,  and  acquainted  with 
grief.     These  aire  the  beginnings  of  sorrows.  ^ 

Joseph's  part  in  all  this  is  told  us  by  Saint 
Matthew  alone.  And  as  we  read  that  Evangelist's 
particular  account  of  that  time,  we  see  how  sharp 


JOSEPH   AND   MARY  S 

that  sword  was  which  pierced  Joseph'^s  soul  also. 
His  heart  was  broken  with  this  terrible  trial,  but 
there  was  only  one  course  left  open  to  him.  Con- 
clude the  marriage  he  could  not,  but  neither  could 
he  consent  to  make  Mary  a  public  example,  and 
there  was  only  left  to  him  the  sad  step  of  revok- 
ing the  contract  and  putting  her  away  privately. 
Joseph's  heart  must  have  been  torn  in  two.  For 
Mary  had  been  the  woman  of  all  women  to  him. 
She  had  been  in  his  eyes  the  lily  among  thorns. 
And  now  to  have  to  treat  her  like  a  poisonous  weed 
— the  thought  of  it  di'ove  him  mad.  Oh,  why  is  it 
that  whosoever  comes  at  all  near  Jesus  Chi'ist  has 
always  to  drink  such  a  cup  of  sorrow  ?  Truly  they 
who  are  brother  or  sister  or  mother  to  Him  must 
take  up  their  cross  daily.  These  are  they  who  go  up 
through  great  tribulation. /^ 

What  a  journey  that  must  have  been  of  Mary 
from  Nazareth  to  Hebron,  and  occupied  with  what 
thoughts.  Mary's  way  would  lead  her  thi'ough 
Jerusalem.  She  may  have  crossed  Olivet  as  the  sun 
was  setting.  She  may  have  knelt  at  even  in  Geth- 
semane.  She  may  have  turned  aside  to  look  on  the 
city  from  Calvary.  What  a  heavy  heart  she  must 
have  carried  through  all  these  scenes  as  she  went 
into  the  hill  country  with  haste.  Only  two,  out  of 
God,  knew  the  truth  about  Mary ;  an  angel  in  heaven, 
and  her  own  heart  on  earth.  And  thus  it  was 
that  she  fled  to  the  mountains  of  Judah,  hoping 
to  find  there  an  aged  kinswoman  of  hers  who  would 
receive  her  word  and  would  somewhat  understand 
her  case.     As  she  stumbled  on  drunk  with  sorrow 


4  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

Mary  must  have  recalled  and  repeated  many  blessed 
scriptures,  well  known  to  her  indeed,  but  till  then 
little  understood.  "  Commit  thy  way  unto  the 
Lord ;  trust  also  in  Him,  and  He  will  bring  it  to 
pass ;  and  He  shall  bring  forth  thy  righteousness  as 
the  light,  and  thy  judgment  as  the  noohday.  Thou 
shalt  keep  them  in  the  secret  of  thy  presence  from 
the  pride  of  men  ;  thou  shalt  keep  them  in  a  pavilion 
from  the  strife  of  tongues.""  Such  a  pavilion  Mary 
sought  and  for  a  season  found  in  the  remote  and 
retired  household  of  Zacharias  and  Elizabeth. 

It  is  to  the  meeting  of  Mary  and  Elizabeth  that 
we  owe  the  Magnificat,  the  last  Old  Testament 
psalm,  and  the  first  New  Testament  hymn,  "My 
soul  doth  magnify  the  Lord,  and  my  spirit  hath 
rejoiced  in  God  my  Saviour."*'  We  cannot  enter  into 
all  Mary's  thoughts  as  she  sang  that  spiritual  song, 
any  more  than  she  could  in  her  day  enter  into  all  our 
thoughts  as  we  sing  it.  For,  noble  melody  as  her 
Magnificat  is,  it  draws  its  deepest  tones  from  a  time 
that  was  still  to  come.  The  spirit  of  Christian 
prophecy  moved  her  to  utter  it,  but  the  noblest 
and  fullest  prophecy  concerning  Christ  fell  far  short 
of  the  evangelical  fulfilment. 

She  is  a  happy  maiden  who  has  a  mother  or  a    ' 
motherly  friend  much  experienced  in  the  ways   of   / 
the   human   heart   to   whom   she   can  tell  all  her    ' 
anxieties ;  a  wise,  tender,  much-experienced  coun- 
sellor, such  as  Naomi  was  to  Ruth,  and  Elizabeth 
to  Mary.    AVas  the  Virgin  an  orphan,  or  was  Mary's 
mother  such  a  woman  that  Mary  could  have  opened 
her  heart  to  any  stranger  rather  than  to  her  ?     Be    | 


JOSEPH   AND   MARY  5 

that  as  it  may,  Mary  found  a  true  mother  in 
Elizabeth  of  Hebron.  Many  a  holy  hour  the  two 
women  spent  together  sitting  under  the  terebinths 
that  overhung  the  dumb  Zacharias's  secluded  house. 
And,  if  at  any  time  their  faith  wavered  and  the 
thing  seemed  impossible,  was  not  Zacharias  beside 
them  with  his  sealed  lips  and  his  writing  table,  a 
living  ^vitness  to  the  goodness  and  severity  of  God  ? 
How  Mary  and  Elizabeth  would  stagger  and  reason 
and  rebuke  and  comfort  one  another,  now  laughing 
like  Sarah,  now  singing  like  Hannah,  let  loving  and 
confiding  and  pious  women  tell. 

Sweet  as  it  is  to  linger  in  Hebron  beside  Mary 
and  Elizabeth,  our  hearts  are  always  drawn  back 
to  Joseph  in  his  unspeakable  agony.  The  absent 
are  dear,  just  as  the  dead  are  perfect.  And  Mary's 
dear  image  became  to  Joseph  dearer  still  when  he 
could  no  longer  see  her  face  or  hear  her  voice. 
Nazareth  was  empty  to  Joseph ;  it  was  worse  than 
empty,  it  was  a  city  of  sepulchres  in  which  he 
sought  for  death  and  could  not  find  it.  Day  after 
day,  week  after  week,  Joseph's  misery  increased,  and 
when,  as  his  wont  was,  he  went  up  to  the  synagogue 
on  the  Sabbath  day,  that  only  made  him  feel  his 
loneliness  and  his  misery  all  the  more.  Mary's 
sweet  presence  had  often  made  the  holy  place  still 
more  holy  to  him,  and  her  voice  in  the  Psalms 
had  been  to  him  as  when  an  snivel  sin<Ts.  On  one 
of  those  Sabbaths  which  the  exiled  Virgin  was 
spending  at  Hebron  Joseph  went  up  again  to  the 
sanctuary  in  Nazareth  seeking  to  hide  his  great 
grief  with  God.     And  this,   I  feel  sure,  was  the 


6  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

Scripture  appointed  to  be  read  in  the  synagogue 
that  day  :  "  Ask  thee  a  sign  of  the  Lord  thy  God ;  f 
ask  it  either  in  the  depth,  or  in  the  height  above. 
Therefore  the  Lord  Himself  shall  give  you  a  sign : 
Behold,  a  virgin  shall  conceive,  and  bear  a  son,  and 
shall  call  his  name  Immanuel."  Joseph's  heart  was 
absolutely  overwhelmed  within  him  as  he  listened 
to  that  astounding  Scripture.  Never  had  ear  or 
heart  of  man  heard  these  amazing  words  as  Joseph t 
heard  them  that  day.  And  then,  when  he  laid 
himself  down  to  sleep  that  night,  his  pillow  became 
like  a  stone  under  his  head.  Not  that  he  was  cast 
out ;  but  he  had  cast  out  another,  and  she  the  best 
of  God''s  creatures.  Ay,  and  she  perhaps — how 
shall  he  whisper  it  even  to  himself  at  midnight — 
the  virgin-mother  of  Immanuel !  A  better  mother 
he  could  not  have.  So  speaking  to  himself  till  he 
was  terrified  at  his  own  thoughts,  weary  with 
another  week's  lonely  labour,  and  aged  with  many 
weeks"*  agony  and  despair,  Joseph  fell  asleep.  Tlien 
a  thing  was  secretly  brought  to  him,  and  his  ear 
received  a  little  thereof.  There  was  silence,  and 
he  heard  a  voice  saying  to  him,  "  Joseph,  thou  son 
of  David,  fear  not  to  take  unto  thee  Mary  thy  wife, 
for  that  which  is  conceived  in  her  is  of  the  Holy 
Ghost."  Gabriel  was  sent  to  reassure  Joseph's 
despairing  heart,  to  demand  the  consummation  of 
the  broken-ofF  marriage,  and  to  announce  the  In- 
carnation of  the  Son  of  God.  Did  Joseph  arise 
before  daybreak  and  set  out  for  Hebron  to  bring 
his  outcast  home  ?  There  is  room  to  believe  that 
he  did.     If  he  did,  the  two  angel-chastened  men 


JOSEPH   AND   MARY  7 

must  have  had  their  own  thoughts  and  counsels 
together  even  as  the  two  chosen  women  had.  And 
as  Joseph  talked  with  Zacharias  through  his  writing 
table,  he  must  have  felt  that  dumbness,  and  even 
death  itself,  would  be  but  a  light  punishment  for 
such  unbelief  and  such  cruelty  as  his.  But  all  this, 
and  all  that  they  had  passed  through  since  the 
angel  came  to  Zacharias  at  the  altar,  only  made 
the  re-betrothal  of  Joseph  and  Mary  the  sweeter 
and  the  holier,  with  the  aged  priest  acting  more 
than  the  part  of  a  father,  and  Elizabeth  acting  more 
than  the  part  of  a  mother. 

For  my  own  part,  I  do  not  know  the  gift  or  the 
grace  or  the  virtue  any  woman  ever  had  that  I 
could  safely  deny  to  Mary.  The  divine  congruity 
compels  me  to  believe  that  all  that  could  be  received 
or  attained  or  exercised  by  any  woman  would  be 
granted  beforehand,  and  all  but  without  measure, 
to  her  who  was  so  miraculously  to  bear,  and  so  inti- 
mately and  influentially  to  nurture  and  instruct,  the 
Holy  Child.  We  must  give  Mary  her  promised 
due.  We  must  not  allow  ourselves  to  entertain  a 
grudge  against  the  mother  of  our  Lord  because 
some  enthusiasts  for  her  have  given  her  more  than 
her  due.  There  is  no  fear  of  our  thinking  too  much 
either  of  Mary's  maidenly  virtues,  or  of  her  motherly 
duties  and  experiences.  The  Holy  Ghost  in  guiding 
the  researches  of  Luke,  and  in  superintending  the 
composition  of  the  Third  Gospel,  especially  signalises 
the  depth  and  the  piety  and  the  peace  of  Mary's 
mind.  At  the  angel's  salutation  she  did  not  swoon 
nor  cry  out.     She  did  not  rush  either  into  terror  on 


L 


8  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

the  one  hand  or  into  transport  on  the  other.  But 
like  the  heavenly-minded  maiden  she  was,  she  cast  in 
her  mind  what  manner  of  salutation  this  should  be. 
And  later  on,  when  all  who  heard  it  were  wondering 
at  the  testimony  of  the  shepherds,  it  is  instructively 
added  that  Mary  kept  all  these  things  and  pondered 
them  in  her  heart.  And  yet  again,  when  another 
twelve  years  have  passed  by,  we  find  the  same 
Evangelist  still  pointing  out  the  same  distinguishing 
feature  of  Mary's  saintly  character,  "  They  under- 
stood not  the  saying  which  Jesus  spake  unto  them ; 
but  His  mother  kept  all  these  sayings  in  her 
heart;' 

And,  again,  if  we  are  to  apply  this  sure  principle 
to  Mary's  case,  "  according  to  your  faith  so  be  it! 
unto  you,"  then  Mary  must  surely  wear  the  crowni 
as  the  mother  of  all  them  who  believe  on  her  Son. 
If  Abraham's  faith  has  made  him  the  father  of  all 
them  who  believe,  surely  Mary's  faith  entitles  her  to 
be  called  their  mother.  If  the  converse  of  our 
Lord's  words  holds  true,  that  no  mighty  work  is 
done  where  there  is  unbelief :  if  we  may  safely  reason 
that  where  there  has  been  a  mighty  work  done/ 
there  must  have  been  a  corresponding  and  a  co- 
operating faith ;  then  I  do  not  think  we  can  easily 
overestimate  the  measure  of  Mary's  faith.  If  this 
was  the  greatest  work  ever  wrought  by  the  power 
and  the  gi-ace  of  Almighty  God  among  the  children 
of  men,  and  if  Mary's  fai  th  entered  into  it  at  all, 
then  how  great  her  faith  must  have  been !  Elizabeth 
saw  with  wonder  and  with  worship  how  great  it 
was.    She  saw  the  unparalleled  grace  that  had  come 


JOSEPH   AND   MARY  9 

to  Mary,  and  she  had  humility  and  magnanimity 
enough  to  acknowledge  it.  "Blessed  art  thou  among 
women  :  Blessed  is  she  that  believeth,  for  there  shall 
be  a  performance  of  those  things  which  were  told 
her  from  the  Lord.""*  "  Blessed  is  she  that  believeth," 
said  Elizabeth,  no  doubt  with  some  sad  thoughts 
about  herself  and  about  her  dumb  husband  sitting 
beside  her.  "  Blessed  is  the  womb  that  bare  Thee," 
cried  on  another  occasion  a  nameless  but  a  true 
woman,  as  her  speech  bewray eth  her,  "  and  Blessed 
be  the  paps  that  Thou  hast  sucked."  But  our  Lord 
answered  her,  and  said,  "Yea,  rather,  blessed  are 
they  that  hear  the  word  of  God  and  keep  it." 
And  again,  "  Whosoever  shall  do  the  will  of  My 
Father  in  heaven,  the  same  is  My  brother,  and  sister, 
and  mother 


10  BIBLE   CHARACTERS 


LXXI 

SIMEON 

IMEON  was  one  of  the  Seventy.  Simeon 
sat  in  the  Jerusalem  Chamber  of  that 
day.  And  it  fell  to  the  lot  of  the  Old 
Testament  company  on  which  Simeon 
sat  to  render  the  prophet  Isaiah  out 
of  the  Hebrew  tongue  and  into  the  Greek  tongue. 
All  went  well  for  the  first  six  chapters  of  the 
evangelical  prophet.  But  when  they  came  to  the 
seventh  chapter,  and  to  this  verse  in  that  chapter, 
"  Behold,  a  virgin  shall  conceive,  and  bear  a  son,  and 
shall  call  his  name  Immanuel,"  Simeon  at  that  im- 
possible prophecy  threw  down  his  pen  and  would 
write  no  more.  'How  shall  this  be?'  demanded 
Simeon.  And  with  all  they  could  do,  the  offended 
scholar  would  not  subscribe  his  name  to  the  parthcfios 
passage  that  so  satisfied  and  so  delighted  all  the 
rest.  Till  in  anger  he  threw  down  his  pen  and 
went  home  to  his  own  house.  But  at  midnight  an 
angel  appeared  to  Simeon,  and  said  to  him :  '  Simeon, 
I  am  Gabriel  that  stand  in  the  presence  of  God. 
And,  behold,  thou  shalt  remain  in  this  thy  captivity 
till  thou  shalt  see  with  thine  own  eyes  the  Lord's 
Christ,  made  of  a  woman,  and  till  the  virgin's  son 


SIMEON  11 

shall  put  his  little  hand  into  thine  aged  bosom,  and 
shall  there  loose  thy  silver  cord/  And  it  was  so. 
And  the  same  Simeon  was  just  and  devout,  waiting 
for  the  consolation  of  Israel.  And  he  was  still 
waiting  in  the  temple  when  his  parents  brought  in 
the  child  Jesus,  to  do  for  him  after  the  custom  of 
the  law.  Then  he  took  him  up  in  his  arms,  and 
blessed  God,  and  said :  "  Lord,  now  lettest  Thou  Thy 
servant  depart  in  peace,  according  to  Thy  word :  for 
mine  eyes  have  seen  Thy  salvation."*' 

I  can  only  guess  at  Simeon's  real  meaning  and 
whole  intention  when  he  said  in  the  temple  that  day 
that  his  waiting  eyes  had  now  seen  God's  salvation. 
For  salvation  in  that  day,  as  in  this  day,  had  as  many 
meanings  as  there  were  men's  minds.  Salvation  had 
the  very  heavenliest  of  meanings  to  one  man,  and  the 
very  earthliest  of  meanings  to  another  man.  To  one 
man  in  the  temple  that  day  the  salvation  of  God 
meant  salvation  from  Caesar ;  while  to  another  man 
it  meant  his  salvation  from  himself.  To  one  man  it 
was  the  tax-gatherer,  and  to  another  his  own  evil 
heart.  And,  with  all  that  we  are  so  instructively 
told  about  Simeon,  still  it  is  not  possible  to  satisfy 
ourselves  as  to  what,  exactly,  that  aged  saint  and 
scripture  scholar  had  in  his  mind  when  he  said  that 
his  eyes  had  now  seen  God's  salvation.  But  it  is 
not  Simeon  and  his  salvation  who  is  our  errand  up 
into  this  temple  to-night.  It  is  ourselves.  What, 
then,  is  our  salvation — ^yours  and  mine  ?  When  we 
speak,  or  hear,  or  read,  or  sing  about  salvation, 
what  exactly  do  we  mean  ? — if,  indeed,  we  have  any 
meaning  at  all,  or  intend  to  have  any.     '  My  son ' 


12  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

— one  of  Simeon  s  sacred  colleagues  used  to  say  to 
his  scholars — '  My  son,  the  first  thing  that  you  will 
be  examined  upon  at  the  day  of  judgment  will  be 
this :  What  was  the  salvation  that  you  pursued 
after?  What  salvation  did  you  study,  and  teach, 
and  preach,  and  yourself  seek  after  when  you  were 
still  in  time  and  upon  the  earth  ?  **  How  happy  will 
it  be  with  old  Simeon  on  that  terrible  day  when  he 
hears  this  read  out  over  him  before  men  and  angels : 
"The  same  man  was  just  and  devout,  waiting  for 
the  consolation  of  Israel,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  was 
upon  him."  "  Mine  eyes,"  said  Simeon,  "  have  seen 
Thy  salvation."  And  Joseph  and  His  mother  mar- 
velled at  those  things  which  were  spoken  of  Him. 

And,  being  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  Simeon  went 
on  to  say :  "  Behold,  this  child  is  set  for  the  fall  and 
rising  again  of  many  in  Israel."  So  He  was  in 
Israel,  and  so  He  is  still.  There  are  schools  and 
systems  of  interpretation  of  Scripture;  there  are 
schools  and  systems  of  philosophy ;  and  of  this  and 
that,  in  which  this  prophecy  uttered  by  Simeon  that 
day,  is  still  being  fulfilled.  They  rise,  and  they 
stand,  and  they  fall,  just  as  they  receive  or  reject 
Immanuel.  But  our  question  with  this  Scripture 
before  us  is  not  about  schools  and  systems  of  theology 
and  philosopliy,  but  about  our  own  souls.  Has 
Mary's  Son,  then ;  has  God's  Son,  been  a  stumbling 
stone  to  me  ?  Or,  has  He  been  the  one  foundation 
laid  in  Zion  for  me?  Has  He,  to  my  everlasting 
salvation,  and  to  His  everlasting  praise,  lifted  me  up 
from  all  my  falls  and  made  me  to  stand  upon  His 
righteousness  as  upon  a  rock  ?     Simeon  himself  had 


SIMEON  IS 

at  one  time  stumbled  and  been  broken  on  this  child, 
and  on  His  too  great  name.  But  the  steps  of  a 
good  man  are  ordered  of  the  Lord,  and  He  delighteth 
in  his  way.  Though  he  fall  he  shall  not  be  utterly 
cast  down,  for  the  Lord  upholdeth  him  with  His 
hand.  Now,  unto  Him  that  is  able  to  keep  you 
from  falling,  and  to  present  you  faultless  before  the 
presence  of  His  glory  with  exceeding  joy :  to  the 
only  wise  God,  our  Saviour. 

"  And  for  a  sign  that  shall  be  spoken  against." 
We  wonder  to  hear  that.  We  are  shocked  to  hear 
that.  We  say  in  amazement  at  that :  What  did 
He  ever  say  or  do  that  He  should  be  spoken 
against  by  any  man?  He  did  the  very  opposite. 
He  went  about  doing  and  speaking  only  good. 
But  that  made  no  difference  to  those  men  in  that 
day  who  spake  so  spitefully  against  Him.  Some 
spake  against  Him  out  of  sheer  ignorance  of  Him. 
They  had  never  even  seen  Him.  But  they  spake 
against  Him  in  their  distant  villages  as  if  He  had 
come  and  done  them  and  theirs  some  great  injury. 
And  many  who  saw  Him  every  day  spake  against 
Him  every  day,  j  ust  because  they  did  not  understand 
Him,  and  would  not  take  the  pains  and  pay  the 
price  to  understand  Him  and  to  love  Him.  Some, 
again,  were  poisoned  against  Him  by  what  other 
people,  and  people  of  power,  said  against  Him ; 
some  through  envy,  and  some  just  because  they 
had  once  begun  to  speak  against  Him,  and  could 
never  give  over  what  they  had  once  begun  to  do. 
And  they  went  on  so  speaking  till  they  were  swept 
on  to  cry,  Crucify  Him !  not  knowing  what  they 


14  BIBLE   CHARACTERS 

were  saying,  or  why.  Take  good  care  how  you 
begin  to  speak  against  any  man,  good  or  bad.  The 
chances  are  that,  once  you  begin  it,  you  will  never 
be  able  to  give  it  over.  When  you  have  once  begun 
the  deviPs  work  of  evil-speaking,  he  will  hold  his 
hook  in  your  jaws,  and  will  drag  you  on,  and  will 
give  you  a  stake  and  an  interest  in  lies  and  slander, 
till  it  will  enrage  and  exasperate  you  to  hear  a  single 
word  of  good  spoken  about  your  innocent  victim. 
"Judge  not,"  said  our  Lord,  feeling  bitterly  how  He 
was  misj  udged  Himself.  And  Albert  Bengel  anno- 
tates that  in  this  characteristic  way :  mie  scientia, 
amove,  necessitate.  "  I  spoke  not  ill  of  any  creature," 
said  Teresa,  ''  how  little  soever  it  might  be.  I 
scrupulously  avoided  all  approaches  to  detraction. 
I  had  this  rule  ever  present  with  me,  that  I  was  not 
to  wish,  nor  assent  to,  nor  say  such  things  of  any 
person  whatsoever  that  I  would  not  have  them  say 
of  me.  Still,  for  all  that,  I  have  a  sufficiently  strict 
account  to  give  to  God  for  the  bad  example  I  am 
to  all  about  me  in  some  other  respects.  For  one 
thing,  the  very  devil  himself  sometimes  fills  me 
with  such  a  harsh  and  cruel  temper — such  a  wicked 
spirit  of  anger  and  hostility  at  some  people — that 
I  could  eat  them  up  and  annihilate  them."  That 
was  the  exact  case  with  the  detractors  of  Jesus 
Christ.  They  had  no  peace  in  their  hearts,  or  in 
their  tongues  at  Him,  till  they  had  eaten  Him  up 
and  annihilated  Him.  This  is  such  a  horrible  pit 
of  a  world  that  not  even  the  Son  of  God  Himself 
could  come  down  into  it,  and  do  the  work  of  God  in 
it,  without  being  hunted  to  death  by  evil  tongues. 


SIMEON  15 

And  with  that  awful  warning,  and  after  nineteen 
centuries  of  His  grace  and  truth,  no  man  of  any 
individuality,  and  talent,  and  initiative  for  good, 
can,  to  this  day,  do  his  proper  work  without  straight- 
way becoming  a  sign  to  be  spK)ken  against.  To  this 
day  some  of  the  most  Christlike  of  men  among  us 
have  been  the  most  written  against  and  spoken 
against,  till  such  speech  and  such  writing  may  almost 
be  taken  as  the  seal  of  God  set  upon  His  best 
servants  and  upon  their  best  work.  "And  for  a  sign 
that  shall  be  spoken  against,"  said  Simeon,  as  he 
returned  the  Holy  Child  to  His  mother. 


16  BIBLE   CHARACTERS 


LXXII 

ZACHARIAS  AND  ELIZABETH 

IGH  up  in  the  hill-country  of  Judea 
there  dwelt  a  certain  priest  named 
Zacharias  with  his  wife  Elizabeth. 
They  were  no  longer  young;  they 
had  lived  a  long  and  a  happy  life- 
time together.  The  single  shadow  that  had  ever 
lain  upon  their  serene  and  saintly  life  had  been 
this  that  their  house  was  childless.  But  all  that 
was  now  long  past — long  past  and  quite  for- 
gotten. "For  thus  saith  the  Lord  to  them  that 
choose  the  things  that  please  me,  and  take  hold 
of  my  covenant,  even  unto  them  will  I  give  in 
mine  house  and  within  my  walls  a  place  and  a 
name  better  than  of  sons  and  of  daughters :  I  will 
give  them  an  everlasting  name,  that  shall  not  be 
cut  off."  And  while  the  Lord  spake  thus  to  them 
both,  Zacharias  in  his  holy  office  spake  thus  to 
Elizabeth :  '  Why  weepest  thou,  and  why  is  thy 
heart  grieved  ?  Am  not  I  better  to  thee  than  ten 
sons?'  Thus  the  God  of  Israel  spake  to  them 
both,  and  thus  they  spake  to  one  another,  till 
Luke  is  able  to  record  this  of  them  both,  that 
they  were  both  righteous  before  God,  walking  in 


ZACHARIAS  AND  ELIZABETH  17 

all  the  commandments  and  ordinances  of  the  Lord 
blameless. 

It  is  the  fulness  of  time  at  last.  It  is  at  last  the 
great  day  on  which  the  New  Testament  has  been 
predestinated  to  open.  Zacharias  has  gone  up  to 
Jerusalem  according  to  his  course.  The  priestly 
lot  has  again  been  cast  and  has  fallen  this  time  on 
Zacharias.  He  is  chosen  of  God  and  called  upon 
to  enter  the  Holy  Place,  to  minister  at  the  altar, 
and  to  make  morning  and  evening  intercession  for 
the  sinful  people.  Never  before,  in  all  his  long 
lifetime,  has  Zacharias  had  this  awful  privilege; 
only  once  in  a  priest's  whole  lifetime  was  this  great 
office  put  upon  any  son  of  Aaron.  Clothed  in  his 
spotless  robes,  with  his  head  covered  and  with  his 
shoes  off,  this  holy  man  and  elect  priest  disappears 
within  the  golden  doors  of  the  Holy  Place.  As 
he  enters  he  sees  the  golden  candlestick,  and  the 
table  of  shewbread,  and  the  altar  of  incense.  From 
that  altar  there  rises  the  sacred  flame  that  had 
been  lighted  at  the  pillar  of  fire  in  the  wilderness, 
and  which  has  burned  on  unconsumed  ever  since. 
Taking  his  censer  full  of  incense  into  his  hand 
Zacharias  pours  it  on  the  perpetual  altar-fire,  and 
says :  Lord,  let  my  prayer  come  before  thee  like 
this  incense ;  and  the  lifting  up  of  my  hands  like  the 
evening  sacrifice !  And  the  whole  multitude  of  the 
people  were  praying  without  at  the  time  of  incense. 
And  there  appeared  unto  Zacharias  an  angel  of  the 
Lord  standing  on  the  right  side  of  the  altar  of  in- 
cense. And  when  Zacharias  saw  him  he  was  troubled 
and  fear  fell  upon  him.     But  the  angel  said  unto 


18  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

him :  Fear  not,  Zacharias ;  for  thy  prayer  is  heard . 
and  thy  wife  Elizabeth  shall  bear  thee  a  son,  and 
thou  shalt  call  his  name  John.  And  thou  shalt 
have  joy  and  gladness,  and  many  shall  rejoice  at  his 
birth.  And  many  of  the  children  of  Israel  shall  he 
turn  to  the  Lord  their  God :  to  make  ready  a  people 
prepared  for  the  Lord.  Then  follows  Zacharias'^s 
fear,  and  doubt,  and  disbelief;  and  then  his  deaf- 
ness and  dumbness ;  and  then  the  visit  of  Mary  to 
the  hill-country  of  Judah,  where  Zacharias  and 
Elizabeth  had  hid  themselves ;  and  then  the  Mag- 
nificat, as  we  call  it :  and  then  the  birth  and  the 
circumcision  of  Elizabeth's  son;  and  then  the 
opening  of  Zacharias''s  mouth  and  the  loosening  of 
his  tongue,  all  wound  up  with  his  magnificent  Bene- 
dictus.     A  splendid  preface  to  a  splendid  book  ! 

"They  were  both  righteous  before  the  Lord,  and 
blameless.""  This  is  an  excellent  instance  of  the 
frank  and  fearless,  if  confessedly  condescending, 
style  of  Holy  Scripture.  Holy  Scripture  has  no 
hesitation  lest  it  should  contradict  or  stultify  itself. 
Holy  Scripture  speaks  out  its  whole  heart  on  each 
occasion  boldly,  and  leaves  the  reconciling  and  the 
harmonising  of  its  strong  and  sometimes  startling 
statements  to  those  of  its  readers  who  feel  a  need 
and  have  a  liking  for  such  reconciling  and  harmonis- 
ing. As  a  matter  of  fact  that  was  the  widespread 
good  name  and  spotless  character  of  Zacharias  and 
Elizabeth.  Zacharias  among  his  brethren  in  the 
priesthood,  and  Elizabeth  among  lier  kinsfolk  and 
neighbours  in  Hebron,  were  both  blameless.  Holy 
Scripture  in  saying  this  simply  classifies  Zacharias 


ZACH ARIAS  AND  ELIZABETH  I9 

and  Elizabeth  with  Abraham,  and  with  Samuel, 
and  with  Job,  and  with  all  such  Old  Testament 
saints.  And  if  such  generous  judgments  are  not  so 
often  passed  on  men  and  women  in  New  Testament 
times,  that  is  so  for  reasons  that  are  very  well 
known  to  every  New  Testament  mind  and  heart. 
And  if  those  noble  tributes  to  Zacharias  and  Eliza- 
beth stagger  and  condemn  us ;  if  we  read  of  their 
righteousness  and  their  blamelessness  with  envy  and 
with  despair ;  what  is  that  envy  and  what  is  that 
despair  but  two  of  our  finest  New  Testament 
graces  through  which  we  are  being  led  on  to  a 
righteousness  and  a  blamelessness  that  shall  not  be 
economical  and  of  condescension,  but  shall  be  true 
and  perfect  and  everlasting.  That  righteousness, 
in  short,  and  that  blamelessness  of  which  a 
New  Testament  apostle  prophesies  in  these  so 
comforting  words  :  "  Nevertheless  we,  according  to 
His  promise,  look  for  new  heavens  and  a  new 
earth,  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness.  Wherefore, 
beloved,  seeing  that  we  look  for  such  things,  be 
diligent  that  ye  be  found  of  Him  in  peace,  without 
spot,  and  blameless."  Blessed  are  they  which  do 
hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness,  for  they  shall 
be  filled. 

And  the  angel  said  unto  him :  Fear  not, 
Zacharias:  for  thy  prayer  is  heard.  Had  the 
angel  come  with  that  answer  forty  years  before  he 
would  have  been  welcomed  and  well  entertained 
both  by  Zacharias  and  Elizabeth.  But  he  has 
come  too  late.  '  No,'  said  Zacharias ;  '  no.  It  is 
far  too  late.     The  time  is  past — long  past     The 


20  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

thing  is  impossible — quite  impossible.  And,  in- 
deed— and  let  not  my  lord  be  angry — it  is  no  longer 
desirable.'  Zacharias  had  long  outlived  his  prayer 
for  a  son.  He  had  long  retracted  his  prayer.  He 
had  a  thousand  times  justified  the  Hearer  of  prayer 
for  not  hearing  and  not  answering  his  too  impatient 
prayer.  He  had  long  ere  now  seen  some  very  good 
and  sufficient  reasons  why  he  and  Elizabeth  should 
end  their  days  together.  And,  even  if  it  were  still 
possible,  Zacharias  was  not  willing  to  be  plunged 
back  at  this  time  of  day  into  all  the  anxieties,  and 
uncertainties,  and  responsibilities,  and  dangers  he 
had  now  for  so  long  left  for  ever  behind  him.  '  My 
prayer  is  not  to  be  heard,**  Zacharias  had  long  ago 
said  to  himself.  'Let  me  direct  my  prayer  and 
look  up  for  far  better,  and  far  more  sure,  and  far 
more  steadfast,  and  far  more  satisfying  things.  The 
will  of  the  Lord  be  done,"*  he  had  said  long  ago. 
But  behold,  to  Zacharias's  confusion,  his  prayer  has 
been  heard  all  the  time !  All  these  long  past  years 
of  prayer,  and  waiting,  and  ceasing  from  prayer  and 
turning  to  other  things — all  that  time  Zacharias's 
answer  has  been  ready  before  God,  and  has  only 
been  waiting  till  the  best  time  for  the  answer  to  be 
sent  down.  Pra}^  on,  then,  all  you  postponed  and 
disappointed  and  impoverished  people  of  God  • 
pray  on  and  faint  not.  Pray  on  :  for  the  prayer  is 
far  better  than  the  answer.  And,  besides,  your 
answer  may  all  the  time  be  ready,  as  Zacharias's 
answer  was.  But  other  people's  prayers  and  other 
people's  providences  may  be  so  mixed  up  with  yours 
that  you  will  have  to  wait  till  their  prayers,  and 


ZACHARIAS  AND  ELIZABETH  21 

their  preparations,  and  their  providences  are  all  as 
ripe  and  as  ready  as  yours.  The  fastest  ship  in  the 
British  fleet  has  to  wait  for  the  slowest,  and  that 
explains  why  that  fine  vessel  is  not  led  into  battle 
and  let  home  to  harbour  with  its  full  and  proper 
spoil.  Zacharias  and  Elizabeth  were  ready  long 
ago.  But  Joseph  and  Mary  were  not  ready  ;  they 
were  still  but  new  beginners  in  faith  and  in  prayer, 
in  righteousness  and  in  blamelessness.  And  thus 
it  was  that,  without  knowing  why,  Zacharias  and 
Elizabeth  and  John  the  Baptist  had  to  wait  in  the 
hill-country  of  Hebron  till  Joseph  and  Mary  were 
made  ready  for  the  Divine  predestination  and  for 
their  prayer  away  north  in  Nazareth. 

And  Zacharias  and  Elizabeth  hid  themselves  up 
in  the  hill-country  for  the  next  five  months.  Look 
at  them.  Look  at  Zacharias  with  his  writing  table, 
and  Elizabeth  with  her  needle.  And  never  one  word 
spoken  between  them  all  that  time,  only  smiles 
and  tears.  What,  do  you  suppose,  was  Zacharias 
doing  all  that  time  with  no  altar  to  minister  at, 
and  no  neighbours  to  talk  to,  and  no  tongue,  indeed, 
to  talk  with.f^  "  I  have  no  books,"  said  Jacob  Behmen, 
"  but  I  have  myself."  And  Zacharias  had  himself. 
Zacharias  had  himself,  and  the  wife  of  his  youth, 
who  was  also  the  light  of  his  eyes :  he  had  himself 
and  all  those  past  years  of  prayer,  and  waiting,  and 
resignation,  and  peace  of  mind.  And  then  he  had 
these  past  overwhelming  weeks  also.  Do  you  still 
ask  what  Zacharias  was  doing  all  that  time  ?  Has 
your  New  Testament  a  margin  with  readings.? 
Your  so  instructive  margin,  if  you  will  attend  to  it, 


22  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

will  tell  you  the  very  Scriptures  over  which  Zacharias 
spent  his  days  and  nights  all  that  silent  time  in 
Hebron.  All  you  have  got  to  do  some  day,  when 
you  are  in  the  mind,  is  to  consult  the  margin  over 
against  Zacharias's  prophetical  song,  and  you  are  in 
that  as  good  as  looking  over  his  shoulder  at  his 
writing  table.  You  are  as  good  as  walking  out 
alone  with  him  when  he  goes  abroad  among  the 
sunsetting  rocks  of  Judea  to  wonder,  and  to  praise, 
and  to  pray  over  Elizabeth  and  himself  and  their 
unborn  son. 

Zacharias  and  Elizabeth  were  sitting  alone  with 
their  own  thoughts  one  day  when  who  should  knock 
at  their  door  but  the  Virgin  Mary  herself  all  the 
way  from  Nazareth.  Luke  takes  up  his  very  best 
pen  as  Elizabeth  and  Mary  embrace  one  another. 
He  had  it  all  long  afterwards  from  an  eye  and  ear 
witness,  so  that  we  might  know  the  certainty  of  all 
that  took  place  that  day  in  Zacharias''s  house  up  in 
the  hill-country.  With  the  embrace  and  with  the 
authority  of  a  prophetess  Elizabeth  saluted  Mary, 
and  said  :  "  Blessed  art  thou  among  women,  and 
blessed  is  the  fruit  of  thy  womb.  And  whence  is 
this  to  me,  that  the  mother  of  my  Lord  should 
come  to  me  ? ""  AVhat  a  day  !  What  a  dispensation  ! 
What  a  meeting !  What  a  household  !  What  a 
predestination  descended  on  that  roof!  What 
unsearchable  riches !  What  great  and  precious 
promises  !  What  prayers  !  What  psalms  !  What 
laughter !  What  tears  !  And  Mary  said  :  "  My 
soul  doth  magnify  the  Lord,  and  my  spirit  hath 
rejoiced  in  God  my  Saviour."'      And  Mary  abode 


ZACHARIAS  AND  ELIZABETH  23 

with  Elizabeth  about  three  months,  and  then  re- 
turned to  her  own  house. 

And  it  came  to  pass,  that  on  the  eighth  day  Eliza- 
beth's neighbours  and  her  cousins  came  to  the  circum- 
cision of  the  child ;  and  they  called  him  Zacharias, 
after  the  name  of  his  father.  But  his  mother 
answered  and  said :  "  Not  so  ;  but  he  shall  be  called 
John,**  that  is  to  say,  The-Grace-of-God.  And 
they  said  unto  her  :  "  But  there  is  none  of  thy 
kindred  that  is  called  by  that  name."  And  they 
made  signs  to  his  father  what  he  would  have  the 
child  called,  and  he  asked  for  his  writing  table  and 
^vi'ote,  saying;  "His  name  is  The-Grace-of-God." 
And  they  marvelled  all.  They  marvelled  all  because 
it  was  a  new  name  to  them,  and  it  offended  them 
to  hear  it.  It  was  to  them  an  outlandish  and  an 
unintelligible  name.  They  had  never  prayed  for 
a  son,  or  for  anjrthing  else.  They  had  never  been 
visited  of  an  angel.  They  had  never  hid  themselves 
five  months.  Their  husbands  had  never  been  struck 
deaf  and  dumb  for  their  doubt.  No  babe  had  ever 
leaped  in  their  womb  because  they  were  filled  with 
the  Holy  Ghost.  No.  None  of  all  their  kindred 
had  ever  been  called  by  this  so  stumbling  name. 
Fathers  and  mothers  of  new-born  children,  be  like 
Elizabeth  and  Zacharias  in  the  naming  of  your 
children.  Be  very  bold,  if  need  be,  in  the  naming 
of  your  children.  Be  original  and  independent  in  the 
naming  of  your  children.  Be  truthful.  Be  thankful. 
Be  believing.  Be  hopeful,  and  be  assured.  Be  not 
afraid  to  write  an  altogether  new  name  in  your 
Family  Bible.     Go  back  to  your  true  ancestoi-s  for 


24  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

a  name  sometimes,  and  not  to  those  of  flesh  and 
blood  only.  Fish  no  more  for  testaments  in  the 
waters  of  baptism.  Or  if  for  a  testament  at  all, 
then  secure,  as  far  as  your  naming  of  him  lies,  that 
your  son  shall  be  an  heir  of  God,  and  a  joint-heir 
with  the  Son  of  God.  Name  the  name  of  God  over 
your  son.  Name  over  your  son  what  God  has  done 
for  your  soul.  Name  over  him  some  secret  of  the 
Lord  with  you.  Name  him  something  that  God 
has  showed  you  out  of  His  holy  covenant.  Eliza- 
beth was  very  bold.  She  named  her  little  son  after 
no  man  on  earth,  but,  actually,  after  Almighty 
God  Himself  in  heaven.  And  her  husband  Zacharias 
was  of  one  mind  with  her  in  that,  as  soon  as  he  got 
his  writing  table  into  his  hands.  The  God-of-all- 
Grace  was  thus  made  Sponsor  and  Name-Father  to 
Elizabeth's  only  son,  who  was  born  of  her  so  out  of 
all  ordinary  time.  Elizabeth  and  Mary  had  spent 
three  months  together  since  Gabriel's  visit  to  them 
both.  And  all  those  three  months — morning,  noon, 
and  night — when  they  talked  together,  it  was  about 
nothing  else  but  about  the  angel,  and  his  visits,  and 
his  messages.  And  among  other  things  that  they 
less  talked  about  to  one  another  than  whispered  to 
themselves,  was  the  naming  of  their  unborn  sons. 
"Immanuel!"  and  "Jesus  Christ!"  Mary  would 
whisper  to  herself,  with  an  ever-increasing  wonder 
and  awe  at  the  awful  words.  While  "  The-Grace- 
of-God"  was  Elizabeth's  holy  secret.  And,  then, 
how  the  two  children  were  born,  and  how  they  were 
brought  up,  and  how  they  both  justified,  and  ful- 
filled, and  adorned  their  new  and  unheard-of  names, 


ZACHARIAS  AND  ELIZABETH  25 

let  Luke  and  his  fellow-evangelists  say.  And  they 
will  tell  you,  to  begin  with,  how  John — The-Grace- 
of-God — grew  and  waxed  strong  in  spirit,  and 
was  in  the  deserts  till  the  day  of  his  showing  unto 
IsraeL 


26  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 


LXXIII 

JOHN  THE  BAPTIST 

HAT  manner  of  child  shall  this  be !  ^ 
was  the  universal  exclamation  of 
the  whole  hill-country  of  Judea 
over  the  birth  of  John.  The  old 
age  of  Zacharias  and  Elizabeth; 
the  errand  from  heaven  of  Gabriel ;  the  dumbness 
in  judgment  of  Zacharias;  and  the  strange  things 
that  he  wrote  on  his  writing  table ;  all  that  made 
all  who  heard  of  it  to  exclaim,  '  What  manner  of 
child,  we  wonder,  shall  John,  the  son  of  Zacharias 
and  Elizabeth,  turn  out  to  be!'  And  the  whole 
manner  and  character  and  service  of  John's  child- 
hood and  youth  and  manhood,  down  to  the  day  of 
his  death,  turned  out  to  be  wonderful  enough  to 
satisfy  the  most  wonder-loving  of  Elizabeth's  neigh- 
bours, both  in  Jerusalem  and  in  all  Judea. 

John  was  in  the  deserts  till  the  day  of  his  showing 
unto  Israel,  so  Luke  tells  us.  And  from  Luke,  and 
from  some  other  trustworthy  sources,  we  can  see 
John  for  the  first  thirty  years  of  his  sequestered 
life  as  well  almost  as  if  we  ourselves  had  lived  in 
the  very  next  desert  to  his  deserts.     For  you  must 


JOHN  THE  BAPTIST  27 

always  remember  this  about  John  that  he  was  in  the 
deserts,  and  was  with  the  wild  beasts,  till  he  began 
to  be  about  thirty  years  of  age.  He  was  in  those 
terrible  deserts  that  lay  all  around  the  Dead  Sea. 
Up  and  down  John  wandered,  and  fasted,  and 
prayed,  where  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  had  once  stood 
till  the  Lord  rained  fire  and  brimstone  upon  all  the 
inhabitants  of  those  cities,  and  upon  all  that  grew 
upon  the  ground.  And  John  was  clothed  with 
camel's  hair,  and  with  a  leathern  girdle  about  his 
loins ;  and  he  did  eat  locusts  and  wild  honey.  A 
terrible  man.  A  man  not  to  come  near.  The 
very  bitumen- miners,  whom  everybody  feared,  were 
afraid  of  John.  It  made  them  sober  and  civil  to 
one  another  when  John  came  down  to  visit  them 
in  their  squalid  settlements.  It  was  not  that  John 
was  a  misanthrope.  John  was  the  right  opposite 
of  a  misanthrope.  It  was  because  all  other  men 
were  misanthropes;  were  hateful,  and  were  hating 
one  another,  that  John  could  not  any  longer  dwell 
among  them,  either  in  Judea  or  in  Jerusalem,  either 
in  Sodom  or  Gomorrah.  You  totally  misread  and 
misunderstand  John  if  you  think  that  it  was  either 
misanthropy  or  moroseness  that  made  John  what 
he  was.  It  was  simply  John's  extraordinarily  deep 
insight  into  the  holy  law  of  God  that  made  him 
such  a  monastic  of  fasting  and  self-flagellation  and 
prayer. 

Before  his  father  Zacharias  died,  and  as  long  as 
Elizabeth  lived,  John  had  heard  things  like  this  at 
their  lips  in  family  worship  every  day :  "  The  Lord 
shall  lay  on  Him  the  iniquity  of  us  all.     He  shall 


28  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

be  stricken,  smitten  of  God,  and  afflicted.  His  soul 
shall  be  made  an  offering  for  sin."  It  was  on  such 
things  as  these  that  Elizabeth  suckled  her  heaven- 
sent son  till  it  sometimes  seemed  to  him  in  his 
loneliness  of  soul  and  in  his  agony  of  heart  that 
he  himself  had  been  made  sin,  and  nothing  but  sin. 
And,  indeed,  in  some  ways,  John  came  as  near  being 
made  sin  as  any  mortal  man  ever  came  to  that 
unparalleled  experience.  John  was  the  man  of 
sorrows  till  the  true  Man  of  Sorrows  Himself 
should  come.  All  the  appetites  of  John's  body, 
and  all  the  affections  of  John's  mind  and  heart, 
were  drunk  up  and  drained  dry  by  the  all-consum- 
ing fires  of  his  unquenchable  conscience.  If  all 
sight  and  sense  and  conscience  of  sin  had  utterly 
died  out  of  Israel  in  that  day,  it  had  only  died  out 
of  all  other  men's  hearts  to  rage  like  the  bottomless 
pit  itself  in  the  great  broken  heart  of  Elizabeth's 
substituted  son.  And  thus  it  was  that  the  very 
robbers  ran  and  hid  themselves  among  the  rocks  of 
the  hill-country  when  they  saw  that  terrible  man 
standing  again  over  against  the  city,  and  crying  out, 
"  Oh  Jerusalem  !  Jerusalem  !  how  shalt  thou  abide 
the  day  of  His  coming  ?  For,  behold !  that  day 
shall  burn  as  an  oven.  That  great  and  terrible  day, 
when  all  that  do  wickedly  shall  be  as  the  stubble ! " 
A  man  alone.  A  man  apart.  A  great  man.  "  A 
greater  man  has  never  been  born  of  woman,"  said  He 
who  knew  all  men.  "  What  went  ye  out  into  the 
wilderness  to  see  ?  A  reed  shaken  with  the  wind ! " 
He  who  said  that  never  smiled,  say  some.  I  see  Him 
smiling  for  once  as  He  says  that.     '  A  man  clothed 


JOHN  THE  BAPTIST  29 

in  soft  raiment!  No;  anything  but  that.  And 
anything  but  a  reed ;  and  with  anything  on  but 
the  soft  clothing  that  they  put  on  in  kings' 
houses ! ' 

And,  now,  from  such  a  divinity-student  as  that, 
and  after  thirty  years  of  such  a  curriculum  and 
probationership  as  that,  what  kind  of  preaching 
would  you  go  to  church  to  look  for  ?  A  dumb  dog 
that  cannot  bark  ?  A  trencher-chaplain  ?  A  soft 
thing  of  gown  and  bands  and  lawn  sleeves  ?  A 
candidate  for  a  manse  and  a  stipend  ?  "  O  genera- 
tion of  vipers,  who  hath  warned  you  to  flee  from 
the  wrath  to  come  ?  Bring  forth,  therefore,  fruits 
meet  for  repentance.  And  now  the  axe  is  laid  at 
the  root  of  the  trees.  Therefore  every  tree 
that  bringeth  not  forth  good  fruit  is  hewn  down 
and  cast  into  the  fire.  He  that  liath  two  coats 
let  him  impart  to  him  that  hath  none ;  and  he 
that  hath  meat,  let  him  do  likewise.  Do  violence 
to  no  man.  Neither  accuse  any  man  falsely,  and 
be  content  with  your  wages.  He  shall  baptize  you 
with  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  with  fire.  Whose  fan  is 
in  His  hand,  and  He  will  gather  the  wheat  into  His 
garner,  but  the  chaff  will  He  bum  up  with  fire 
unquenchable."  The  greatest  preaclier  of  the  past 
generation  when  preaching  to  a  congregation  of 
young  preachers  said  this  to  them  :  "  He  who  has 
before  his  mental  eye  the  four  last  things  will  have 
the  true  earnestness.  He  ^^ll  have  the  horror  and 
the  rapture  of  one  who  witnesses  a  conflagration,  or 
discerns  some  rich  and  sublime  prospect  above  and 
beyond  this  world.     His  countenance,  his  manner, 


so  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

his  voice  will  all  speak  for  him  in  proportion  as  his 
view  has  been  vivid  and  minute. 

Yea,  this  man's  brow^  like  to  a  title-leaf. 
Foretells  the  nature  of  a  tragic  volume. 
Thou  tremblestj  and  the  whiteness  in  thy  cheek 
Is  apter  than  thy  tongue  to  tell  thine  errand. 

It  is  this  earnestness,  in  the  supernatural  order, 
which  is  the  eloquence  of  saints ;  and  not  of  saints 
only,  but  of  all  Christian  preachers,  according  to  the 
measure  of  their  faith  and  love." 

But  why,  I  wonder,  was  the  forerunner  able  to 
content  himself  all  his  days  with  being  no  more 
than  the  forerunner  ?  Why  did  John  not  leave  oft' 
his  ministry  of  accusation  and  condemnation  ?  Why 
did  he  not  wait  upon,  and  himself  take  up,  the 
ministry  of  reconciliation  ?  When  he  said  to  his 
disciples.  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God !  why  did  the 
Baptist  not  go  himself  with  Andrew  and  the  others 
and  become,  first,  a  disciple,  and  then  in  due  time 
an  apostle,  of  Jesus  Christ  ?  Zacharias'*s  son  would 
have  made  a  better  son  of  thunder  than  both  of 
Zebedee's  sons  taken  together.  Why,  then,  did  John 
not  leave  the  desert,  and  the  Jordan,  and  follow 
Christ.''  Well,  to  begin  with,  he  could  not  help 
himself.  Jesus  did  not  call  John  any  more  than  He 
called  His  own  brother  James.  '  Go  you,'  John  said 
to  Andrew,  and  to  Peter,  and  to  James  and  John,  the 
sons  of  Zebedee.  '  Go  you :  I  am  not  worthy  to 
enter  under  the  same  roof  with  Him.  I  will  remain 
where  I  am.  I  will  "work  at  the  Jordan.  I  will 
preach  repentance,  and  He  will  teach  you  to  preach 


JOHN  THE  BAPTIST  SI 

pardon.  The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  soon  coming, 
but  I  shall  not  live  to  see  it.  I  shall  not  live  to 
see  Tabor,  and  Calvary,  and  Olivet,  and  Pentecost, 
like  you.  He  and  you.  His  disciples,  must  increase, 
but  I  must  decrease.'  John  was  a  great  man  and 
a  gi'eat  preacher,  but,  as  we  are  wont  to  say, 
he  never  quite  escaped  out  of  the  seventh  of  the 
Romans. 

John  the  Baptist,  like  some  much  more  evangelical 
men,  was  well-nigh  smothered  out  of  life  in  the 
slough  of  despond.  '  Art  thou  He  that  should  come, 
or  do  we  look  for  another?  Why  dost  thou  eat 
and  drink  with  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  and  leave  me 
lying  here  in  this  prison-house  of  Herod  and  his 
harlots .?  Why  dost  thou  eat  and  drink  and  make 
wine  out  of  water  for  weddings.?  Rather,  surely, 
should  all  God's  true  servants  put  on  sackcloth  and 
ashes  and  mourn  apart,  every  family  apart,  and 
their  wives  apart.  Art  thou  He  that  should  come, 
or  do  we  look  for  another.?'  Yes;  this  is  Elias 
come  back  again.  "  I  have  been  very  zealous  for  the 
Lord,"*'  complained  Elias  in  his  cave  in  Horeb.  *'  I 
only  am  left,  and  they  seek  my  life.  It  is  enough. 
Let  me  die,  O  Lord,  for  I  am  no  better  than  my 
fathers."  The  God  of  all  comfort  be  thanked  for 
Elias,  and  for  John,  and  for  the  slough  of  despond  ! 
They  are  all  >\Titten  for  our  rebuke,  and  for  our  learn- 
ing, and  for  our  sure  consolation.  Had  these  things 
not  been  written  we  would  have  turned  away  from 
our  Bible  in  despair,  saying  :  *  These  men  are  giants 
and  saints.  These  are  not  men  of  like  passions  as 
we  are.     Why,'  we  are  often  tempted  to  complain, 


32  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

'  Why  is  God's  Kingdom  so  long  in  coming  ?  What 
hinders  it,  if  indeed  Christ  is  on  His  throne  and 
has  all  things  in  His  hand?  Why  does  He  not 
burst  open  my  prison-house  and  redress  my  cause  ? 
Why  is  my  sanctification  so  postponed  ?  Art  thou 
He  that  should  come,  or  do  we  look  for  another  ? ' 
"  Go  and  show  John  again  those  things  that  ye  do 
see,  and  hear.  The  blind  receive  their  sight,  the 
lame  walk,  the  lepers  are  cleansed,  the  deaf  hear, 
the  dead  are  raised  up,  and  the  poor  have  the 
Gospel  preached  to  them.  And  blessed  is  he,  who- 
soever shall  not  be  offended  in  Me.  He  that 
believeth,  and  hopeth  against  hope,  and  endureth 
to  the  end,  he  alone  shall  be  saved.'*'' 

But  by  far  the  very  best  thing  that  the  Baptist  ever 
said  or  did  was  what  he  said  to  his  jealous  disciples : 
"A  man  can  receive  nothing,'"  he  said,  "  except  it  be 
given  him  from  Heaven.  He  that  hath  the  bride  is 
the  bridegroom.  He  must  increase,  but  I  must 
decrease.'"  I  would  rather  have  had  the  grace  from 
God  to  say  that  than  have  been  the  greatest  man 
ever  born  of  woman.  For  he  who  thinks,  and  says, 
and  does  a  thing  like  that  is  born,  not  of  blood, 
nor  of  the  will  of  the  flesh,  nor  of  the  will  of  man, 
but  of  God.  And  yet,  when  I  come  up  close  to  it 
and  look  it  in  the  face,  this  great  utterance  of  the 
Baptist  is  not  by  any  means  so  unapproachable  as  I 
took  it  to  be  at  my  first  sight  of  it.  I  myself  could 
have  said  and  done  all  that  John  said  and  did  that 
day.  That  is  to  say,  had  I  been  in  his  exact  circum- 
stances.'* For  what  were  his  exact  circumstances.'' 
They  were  these,  and  much  more  than  these.     John 


JOHN  THE  BAPTIST  S3 

had  drunk  in  the  Sonship  and  the  Messiahship  of 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  with  his  mother's  milk.  And  he 
had  been  brought  up  all  his  days  on  that  same 
marrow  of  lions.  His  mother  Elizabeth,  you  may 
be  very  sure,  did  not  die,  nor  did  Zacharias  depart 
in  peace,  till  they  had  both  told  over  and  over  again 
to  their  forerunner-son  every  syllable  they  had  to 
tell.  And  thus  it  was  that  for  full  thirty  years  John 
did  nothing  else  but  wait  for  the  Messiah.  John 
thought  about  no  one  else,  and  spake  about  no  one 
else,  for  all  these  endless  years,  but  the  Lamb  of 
God.  And  thus  it  was  that  when  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
came  south  to  the  Jordan  to  be  baptized  of  John, 
the  Baptist  remonstrated  and  refused,  and  said :  "  I 
have  need  to  be  baptized  of  Thee."  No,  there  was 
nothing  at  all  so  great  or  so  good  in  John^^s  self- 
effacing  speech  to  his  disciples.  The  most  envious- 
minded  man  in  all  the  world  does  not  envy  a  lion, 
or  an  eagle,  or  an  angel.  A  beggar  does  not  envy 
a  king.  He  only  envies  his  neighbour-beggar 
whose  pockets  are  so  full  of  coppers  and  crumbs  at 
night.  "Potter  envies  potter."  And  the  more 
theology  there  was  in  John's  first  great  utterance, 
"Behold  the  Lamb  of  God,"  the  less  morality 
there  was  in  his  second  great  utterance,  "  He  must 
increase,  but  I  must  decrease."  No  thanks  to  John 
not  to  be  jealous  of  the  Son  of  God!  But  had 
Jesus  been  simply  a  carpenter  of  Nazareth,  and 
John's  cousin  to  boot,  turned  suddenly  such  a 
popular  preacher  with  all  men,  and  with  all 
John's  baptized  disciples  going  after  him;  and 
had   John,   in   that  case,   said   all  this   about   his 

c 


34  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

own  decreasing,  then  I  would  down  on  the  spot  and 
kiss  his  feet. 

"  I  was  to  preach  in  Clackmannan,  where  the  most 
of  the  people  were  already  for  me  to  be  their 
minister,  but  some  that  had  the  greatest  power 
were  against  me,  as  it  ordinarily  fared  with  me  in 
the  places  where  I  used  to  preach.  On  the  Saturday 
afternoon  there  came  a  letter  to  my  hand,  desiring 
me  to  give  the  one-half  of  the  day  to  another  pro- 
bationer, whom  those  who  were  against  me  had  their 
eye  upon.  In  these  circumstances,  seeing  what 
hazard  I  was  in  of  an  evil  eye,  I  committed  the 
keeping  of  my  heart  to  the  Lord  that  I  might  be 
helped  to  carry  evenly.  He  got  the  forenoon,  for 
so  it  was  desired  by  his  friends.  I  was,  as  I  ex- 
pected, terribly  assaulted  by  the  tempter.  When 
I  came  home  from  church  my  heart  was  in  a  manner 
enraged  against  itself  on  that  account,  and  I  con- 
fessed it  before  the  Lord,  abhorring  myself,  and  ap- 
pealing to  God's  omniscience,  that  I  would  fain  have 
had  it  otherwise.  As  I  was  complaining  that  Satan 
had  winnowed  me,  and  had  brought  up  much  filthy 
stuff  out  of  my  heart,  it  came  to  my  mind :  '  But  I 
have  prayed  for  thee  that  thy  faith  fail  not.'  And 
then,  in  the  evening,  after  service,  while  I  sat 
musing  over  the  day,  I  proposed  this  question  to 
myself:  Wouldest  thou  be  satisfied  with  Christ  as 
thy  portion,  though  there  was  no  hell  to  be  saved 
from.''  And  my  soul  answered.  Yes!  Supposing, 
further,  wouldst  thou  be  content  with  Christ,  though 
likewise  thou  shouldest  lose  credit  and  reputation, 
and  see  other  men  before  thee,  and  meet  with  much 


JOHN  THE  BAPTIST  35 

trouble  and  trial  for  His  sake?  And  my  soul 
answered,  Yes  !  This  was  the  last  sermon  I  preached 
in  Clackmannan,  for  I  was  going  out  of  the  country ; 
and  neither  of  us  two  preachers  of  that  Sabbath  was 
the  person  that  God  had  designed  for  that  pulpit." 

He  that  hath  the  bride  is  the  bridegroom. 


S6  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 


LXXIV 

NICODEMUS 

HIS,  I  feel  sure,  is  not  the  first  time 
that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  and  Nicodemus 
of  Jerusalem  have  met.  The  sudden 
and  trenchant  way  in  which  our  Lord 
receives  the  cautious  old  ruler's  diplo- 
matic certificates  and  civilities,  and  every  single 
word  of  the  whole  subsequent  conversation,  all  point 
unmistakably,  as  I  feel  sure,  to  some  previous  meet- 
ing. The  meeting  took  place  in  this  wise ;  it  must 
have  taken  place  in  some  such  wise  as  this : 

Nicodemus  was  one  of  the  oldest  and  most 
honoured  heads  of  that  overawing  deputation  which 
was  sent  out  to  Bethabara  by  the  Temple  authorities 
to  examine  into  the  Baptist's  preaching,  and  to 
report  to  the  Temple  on  that  whole  movement. 
"  Who  art  thou  ?  "  Nicodemus  demanded.  "  I  am 
not  the  Christ,"  the  Baptist  answered.  "  Why  bap- 
tizest  thou  then?"  "I  indeed  baptize  thee  with 
water  unto  repentance,  but.  Behold  the  Lamb  of 
God  which  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world,  He 
will  baptize  thee,  when  thou  comest  to  Him,  with 
the  Holy  Ghost."  And,  had  Nicodemus  only 
been  alone  that  day,   there  is  no  saying  what  he 


NICODEMUS  87 

might  not  have  said  and  done  on  the  spot. 
Nicodemus  was  mightily  impressed  with  all  that 
he  had  seen  and  heard  at  the  Jordan.  But  he 
was  not  free ;  he  did  not  feel  free  and  able  to  act 
as  his  conscience  told  him  he  ought  immediately  to 
act.  He  was  at  the  head  of  that  Temple  embassy  of 
inquisition,  and  he  simply  could  not  extricate  himself 
from  the  duties,  and  the  responsibilities,  and  the 
entanglements  of  his  office.  He  and  his  colleagues 
had,  by  this  time,  seen  and  heard  more  than  they 
well  knew  what  to  say  to  the  Temple  about  it  all. 
And,  accordingly,  glad  to  get  away  from  Bethabara, 
they  took  up  their  carriages  and  set  out  for  Jeru- 
salem, compiling  all  the  way  home  their  perplexing 
and  unsatisfactory  report  upon  John  and,  especially 
upon  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

The  third  chapter  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  is  in  many 
things  an  absolutely  classical  chapter.  In  his  third 
chapter  the  fourth  Evangelist  introduces  us  into 
an  inquiry-room,  as  we  would  call  it,  in  which  our 
Lord  is  the  director  and  the  counsellor  of  souls,  and 
in  which  Nicodemus  is  the  inquirer  and  the  convert. 
Nicodemus  had  not  slept  soundly  one  single  night, 
nor  spent  one  single  day  without  remorse  and  fear, 
ever  since  that  scene  when  he  saw  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
baptized  by  John,  and  coming  up  out  of  the  water. 
And  thus  it  was  that  he  stole  out  of  the  city  that 
night,  and  determined  to  see  in  secret  this  mysterious 
man.  I  cannot  put  you  back  into  Nicodemus'*s  state 
of  mind  as  he  stumbled  out  to  Bethany  in  the  dark 
that  night.  To  you,  Jesus  of  Nazareth  is  the  Son 
of  God,  and  your  Saviour,  and  Lord,  and  Master. 


38  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

But  to  Nicodemus  that  night  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
was — Nicodemus  staggered  and  stood  still — he  was 
afraid  to  let  himself  think  Who  and  What  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  was,  and  might  turn  out  to  be.  "  Rabbi, 
we  know  that  thou  art  a  teacher  come  from  God."*' 
But  it  took  the  old  ruler's  breath  away  when  it  was 
answered  him  in  such  a  sudden  and  sword-like  way : 
"Except  a  man  be  born  of  water  and  of  the  Spirit 
he  cannot  enter  into  the  Kingdom  of  God."  To  me 
it  is  a  most  extraordinary  and  impossible  hallucina- 
tion. My  whole  mind  and  imagination  and  heart 
and  conscience  would  have  to  be  taken  down  and 
built  up  again  upon  an  absolutely  other  pattern ;  my 
whole  experience,  observation,  and  study  of  all  these 
divine  things  would  have  to  be  turned  upside  down 
before  I  could  possibly  believe  in  what  is  called  "bap- 
tismal regeneration."  No !  there  is  no  such  thing. 
Believe  me,  whoever  says  it,  and  however  long 
and  learnedly  and  solemnly  they  have  been  saying  it, 
there  is  no  such  thing.  There  could  not  be.  And, 
certainly,  there  is  no  such  materialistic,  mechanical, 
immoral,  and  unspiritual  doctrine  and  precept 
here.  But  there  is  in  place  of  it  a  divine  doctrine 
and  a  divine  precept  that  goes  at  one  stroke  down 
into  Nicodemus''s  self-deceiving  heart,  and  cuts  his 
self-deceiving  heart  open  to  the  daylight.  If  our 
masters  of  Israel  do  not  know  what  our  Lord 
pointed  at  when  he  said  "  water "  with  such  em- 
phasis, Nicodemus  could  have  told  them.  And 
had  Nicodemus  only  been  brave  enough;  had  he 
only  had  brow  enough  for  a  good  cause;  had  he 
only  gone  down  into  the  waters  of  Jordan  beside 


NICODEMUS  39 

Jesus  of  Nazareth,  we  would  have  been  counting  up 
to-day  Peter,  and  James,  and  John,  and  Nicodemus, 
as  all  apostles  of  Christ.  And  we  would  have  had 
an  Epistle  of  Nicodemus  to  the  Pharisees,  and  in  it 
such  a  key  to  this  whole  conversation  as  would  have 
made  it  impossible  for  any  man  to  preach  regenera- 
tion by  water  out  of  it.  But  Nicodemus  missed 
his  great  opportunity,  and  both  he  and  the  whole 
Church  of  Christ  have  been  terrible  losers  thereby 
down  to  this  disunited  and  distracted  day.  Nico- 
demus, ruler  of  Israel  just  because  he  was,  he  was 
not  equal  to  face  such  a  loss  of  reputation  and  of 
other  things  as  would  immediately  have  descended 
upon  him  on  the  day  he  was  publicly  baptized. 
And  as  he  lay  and  tossed  on  his  bed  every  night 
after  Bethabara,  he  thought  he  had  at  last  devised 
a  compromise  so  as  to  get  into  sufficient  step  with 
this  teacher  come  from  God,  or  whatever  else  He 
was,  and  yet  not  needlessly  break  with  the  Temple 
and  its  honours  and  emoluments.  But  there  is  no 
deceiving  of  Jesus  Christ.  For,  have  we  not  been 
told  just  before  Nicodemus  knocked  at  Martha's  door, 
that  Jesus  knew  all  men,  and  knew  what  was  in  all 
men  ?  And  thus  it  was  that  Nicodemus  had  scarcely 
got  his  lips  opened  to  pay  his  prepared  compliments  to 
our  Lord  when  he  was  met  again  with  that  dreadful 
"  water,"  which  had  haunted  him  like  au  accusing 
spirit  ever  since  he  had  not  gone  down  into  it 
at  Bethabara.  Nicodemus  stood  ripe  and  ready  for 
his  regeneration,  and  for  his  first  entrance  into  the 
kingdom  of  heaven,  and  he  was  within  one  short  step 
of  its  gate  at  the  Jordan,  but  that  step  was  far  too 


40  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

strait  and  sore  for  Nicodemus  to  take.  Nicodemus 
saw  the  pearl,  and  knew  something  of  the  value  of  it, 
but  he  could  not  make  up  his  mind  to  sell  all  he 
possessed  so  as  to  pay  the  price.  In  our  Lord's 
words,  which  He  was  always  repeating,  Nicodemus 
had  not  the  strength  of  mind  and  heart  to  take  up 
his  cross  and  be  born  again.  He  was  not  able  to 
be  baptized — not  into  regeneration,  there  is  no  such 
baptism — but  into  evangelical  repentance  and  the 
open  loss  of  all  things.  And  thus  it  was  that  our 
Lord,  with  all  His  affability,  would  not  enter  on  any 
closer  intimacy  or  confidence  with  Nicodemus  till 
he  had  gone  out  to  John  at  the  Jordan.  There 
were  a  thousand  things  that  held  Nicodemus  back 
from  John''s  baptism  at  his  age  and  in  his  office,  and 
our  Lord  saw  and  sympathised  with  every  one  of 
them.  But,  King  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  as  He 
was  that  night  in  Bethany,  even  He  could  not 
make  the  door  of  the  kingdom  one  inch  wider,  or 
one  atom  easier,  than  it  was  out  at  Bethabara. 
*  No ! '  our  Lord  said  to  Nicodemus,  as  he  lay 
struggling  in  the  net  of  his  old  heart  and  life  all 
that  night — '  No !  We  do  not  need  to  talk  any 
more  about  my  mighty  works  or  your  new  birth. 
You  know  your  first  duty  in  this  whole  matter 
as  well  as  I  can  tell  you.  John  told  you,  and  you 
would  not  do  it.  And  I  cannot  relieve  you  of 
your  first  duty  any  more  than  I  can  do  it  for  you. 
And  you  may  go  away  to-night,  again  leaving  your 
immediate  duty  undone,  but  mark  my  words,  till 
the  day  of  your  death  and  judgment  there  will 
be  no  other  way  to  a  new  heart  and  a  new  life  for 


NICODEMUS  41 

you  but  to  go  out  to  the  waters  of  Jordan  and  be 
baptized  of  John  before  all  Judea  and  Jerusalem, 
and  then  come  after  Me  and  be  My  disciple.' 
Nicodemus,  that  blind  leader  of  the  blind,  had 
always  taken  it  for  granted  that  when  the  kingdom 
of  God  should  come  to  Israel  he  would  be  taken 
up  to  sit  in  one  of  the  highest  seats  ot  it.  It  had 
never  once  entered  his  snow-white  head  to  doubt 
for  one  moment  but  that  he  would  sit  on  a  throne 
up  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Messiah.  Imagine, 
then,  what  a  sudden  blow  in  the  face  it  was  to 
Nicodemus  to  be  told,  and  that  by  the  very  Messiah 
Himself,  that  he  had  neither  part  nor  lot  in  that 
kingdom,  and  could  not  have,  until  he  had  been 
baptized  in  Jordan  confessing  his  sins  beside  the 
offscourings  of  the  city. 

At  the  same  time,  Nicodemus  that  night  was  in 
Martha's  house  beside  Jesus  Christ,  and  not  out  at  the 
Jordan  beside  John  the  Baptist.  And  Jesus  Christ 
did  not  open  the  door  and  dismiss  Nicodemus  as 
John  the  Baptist  would  certainly  have  done.  The 
very  opposite.  Our  Lord,  with  His  utmost  tender- 
ness for  the  ensnared  and  struggling  old  man,  took 
patience  to  put  all  John's  best  preaching  over  again 
to  Nicodemus,  and  added  some  of  His  own  best 
preaching  to  it,  and,  all  the  time,  in  His  most 
attractive  and  most  winning  way.  John  had  scoffed 
at  Nicodemus's  boasted  birth  from  Abraham ;  but 
Jesus  contented  Himself  with  simply  saying  that 
Nicodemus  must  be  born  of  water  and  of  the  Spirit. 
John  had  assailed  the  Temple  representatives  as  a 
generation   of  vipers ;    and,   while    Jesus   did   not 


42  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

withdraw  or  apologise  for  one  single  syllable  of 
His  so-outspoken  forerunner,  He  veiled  His  fore- 
runner''s  strong  language  somewhat  under  the 
sacramental  and  evangelical  typology  of  the  ser- 
pent in  the  wilderness.  And,  then,  from  that 
He  went  on  to  honour  and  to  win  Nicodemus 
with  that  golden  passage  that  "  Even  so  must  the 
Son  of  Man  be  lifted  up."  And  that  golden  passage 
was,  I  feel  sure,  Nicodemus's  salvation  that  very 
night,  as  it  has  been  the  salvation  of  so  many  sinners 
ever  since.  And  then,  as  He  shook  hands  with 
Nicodemus  just  as  the  cock  was  crowing  in  Martha's 
garden,  Jesus  said  to  Nicodemus,  with  a  look  and  with 
a  manner  that  the  old  ruler  never  forgot,  "  But  he 
that  doeth  good  cometh  to  the  light,  that  his  deeds 
may  be  made  manifest  that  they  are  wrought  in 
God."  John,  our  evangelist,  was  present  all  that 
night,  and  he  has  written  this  chapter  also  of  his 
book  so  that  we  might  believe  that  Jesus  is  the 
Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  and  that  believing  we  might 
have  life  through  His  name.  And  this  evangelist, 
after  that  ever-memorable  day  at  Bethabara,  and 
that  equally  memorable  midnight  and  morning  at 
Bethany,  never  lets  Nicodemus  out  of  his  sight. 
And  thus  it  is  that  we  read  this  in  John's  seventh 
chapter:  "Then  Nicodemus  said  to  the  chief  priests 
and  to  the  Pharisees,  Doth  our  law  judge  any  man 
before  it  hear  him,  and  know  what  he  doeth?" 
And  then  as  we  read  John's  nineteenth  chapter, 
we  come  on  this .  "  And  there  came  also  Nicodemus, 
which  at  the  first  came  to  Jesus  by  night,  and  he 
brought  a  mixture  of  myrrh  and  aloes,  about  a 
hundred  pounds  weight."*' 


NICODEMUS  43 

"  Now  1  saw  that  there  would  be  no  answer  to  me 
till  I  had  entire  purity  of  conscience,  and  no  longer 
regarded  any  iniquity  whatsoever  in  my  heart.  I 
saw  that  there  were  some  secret  affections  still  left 
in  me,  which,  though  they  were  not  very  bad  in 
themselves  perhaps,  yet  in  a  life  of  prayer,  such  as 
I  was  then  attempting,  these  remanent  affections 
certainly  spoiled  all."  Just  so.  Just  so  in  Teresa, 
and  in  Nicodemus,  and  in  you,  and  in  me.  It  was 
surely  not  so  very  bad  in  itself  for  Nicodemus  to 
let  himself  be  put  at  the  head  of  that  Temple 
embassy  of  inquisition  upon  the  Baptist.  It  was 
surely  not  so  very  bad  in  itself  for  Nicodemus,  once 
having  set  out,  to  keep  true  to  his  colleagues,  even 
if  that  was  done  somewhat  at  the  expense  and 
the  injury  of  John.  It  was  not  such  a  great  crime, 
surely,  for  Nicodemus  to  yield  to  such  strong 
pressure  so  far  as  to  put  his  name  to  the  somewhat 
unfriendly  report  that  his  less  scrupulous  colleagues 
wrote  out  for  the  Temple.  And  it  could  only  be 
good,  surely,  and  to  Nicodemus's  credit,  that  he 
went  out  to  Bethany  at  an  hour  most  convenient 
for  a  ruler  of  the  Jews.  And  it  is  not  so  very  bad 
surely  in  itself  in  you — everybody  does  it — to  take 
up  a  distaste  at  s«>me  man  or  some  movement  that 
you  know  quite  well  you  have  absolutely  nothing 
against.  It  is  surely  not  enough  to  cost  you  in  the 
end  the  loss  of  your  soul  for  you  to  think  first  of 
your  prospects  in  life,  and  how  you  will  continue 
to  stand  with  this  great  man  and  with  that,  accord- 
ing as  you  cast  in  your  lot  with  this  party  in  the 
state,  or  with  that   denomination   in  the  church. 


44  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

Everybody  does  it.  And  who  but  John  would 
denounce  so  fiercely  and  so  contemptuously  such 
secret  affections  as  these  are  in  you?  But  then, 
if  John  and  then  Jesus  denounce,  and  despise,  and 
deny  you,  what  will  it  profit  you  if  you  gain  the 
whole  of  this  world  ?  But,  happily,  there  is  a  second 
lesson  out  of  Nicodemus,  and  out  of  his  subsequent 
history,  and  it  is  this:  Though  you  have  been  a 
coward  and  a  dark  friend  to  truth  and  to  duty  up 
to  this  night,  if  God  in  His  great  goodness  should 
give  you  yet  another  offer  and  opportunity,  seize 
it  on  the  spot.  Jesus  Christ  is  still  among  His 
enemies  in  many  ways.  Recognise  and  acknowledge 
Jesus  Christ,  and  stand  up  for  Him  in  your  Sanhedrim 
like  Nicodemus.  Do  you  know  Him?  ask  them. 
Have  you  ever  gone  to  where  He  lodges  and  seen 
and  heard  Him  for  yourselves  ?  Have  you  read  the 
book  you  speak  against?  ask  them.  Do  you  love 
the  writer,  and  do  you  wish  him  well?  ask  them. 
Do  you  rejoice  in  an  evil  report  ?  demand  boldly  of 
them.  Or  do  you  rejoice,  to  your  own  loss,  in  the 
truth  ?  The  whole  Seventy  will  turn  on  you,  and 
will  rend  you.  But  what  of  that?  For  unless 
you  are  rent  here  for  His  name's  sake,  the  Son  of 
Man  will  be  ashamed  of  you  when  He  is  suddenly 
revealed  and  suddenly  descends  on  you  in  all  His 
glory. 

But  for  Nicodemus,  and  another  timid  friend  to 
truth,  the  dead  body  of  our  Lord  might  have  been 
taken  out  of  the  city  and  cast  into  the  flames  of 
Tophet,  that  type  of  Hell,  along  with  the  carcases 
of  the  two  thieves.     All  the  disciples  had  forsaken 


NICODEMUS  «5 

their  crucified  Master  and  had  fled.  But  Joseph  of 
Arimathaea  and  Nicodemus  went  boldly  to  Pilate 
and  besought  him  to  let  them  bury  the  dead  body 
that  all  other  men  hid  their  faces  from  that  day. 
And  Joseph  and  Nicodemus  took  the  body  of  Jesus 
and  wound  it  in  linen  clothes  with  the  spices,  as  the 
manner  of  the  Jews  is  to  bury  their  dead.  It  was 
the  same  Joseph  of  Arimathaea  who  had  been  a 
disciple  of  Jesus,  but  secretly  for  fear  of  the  Jews ; 
and  it  was  the  same  Nicodemus,  which  at  the  first 
came  to  Jesus  by  night. 


46  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 


LXXV 
PETER 

HE  Four  Gospels  are  full  of  Peter 
After  the  name  of  our  Lord  Himself, 
no  name  comes  up  so  often  in  the 
Four  Gospels  as  Peter's  name.  No 
disciple  speaks  so  often  and  so  much 
as  Peter.  Our  Lord  speaks  oftener  to  Peter  than  to 
any  other  of  His  disciples ;  sometimes  in  blame  and 
sometimes  in  praise.  No  disciple  is  so  pointedly 
reproved  by  our  Lord  as  Peter,  and  no  disciple  ever 
ventures  to  reprove  his  Master  but  Peter.  No  other 
disciple  ever  so  boldly  confessed  and  outspokenly 
acknowledged  and  encouraged  our  Lord  as  Peter 
repeatedly  did ;  and  no  one  ever  intruded,  and 
interfered,  and  tempted  Him  as  Peter  repeatedly 
did  also.  His  Master  spoke  words  of  approval,  and 
praise,  and  even  blessing  to  Peter  the  like  of  which 
He  never  spoke  to  any  other  man.  And  at  the 
same  time,  and  almost  in  the  same  breath.  He  said 
harder  things  to  Peter  than  He  ever  said  to  any 
other  of  His  twelve  disciples,  unless  it  was  to 
Judas. 

No  disciple  speaks  so  often  as  Peter.     "Depart 
from  me,  for  I  am  a  sinful  man,  O  Lord.     I^,  we 


PETER  47 

have  left  all  and  followed  Thee ;  what  shall  we  have 
therefore?  Be  it  far  from  Thee,  Lord;  this  shall 
never  be  to  Thee.  Lord,  if  it  be  Thou,  bid  me 
come  unto  Thee  on  the  water.  Lord,  save  me. 
The  crowd  press  Thee,  and  how  sayest  Thou,  Wlio 
touched  me  ?  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the 
living  God.  To  whom  can  we  go  but  unto  Thee  ? 
Thou  hast  the  words  of  eternal  life.  Lord,  it  is 
good  for  us  to  be  here;  let  us  make  three  tabernacles: 
one  for  Thee,  and  one  for  Moses,  and  one  for  Elias. 
How  oft  shall  my  brother  sin  against  me,  and  I 
forgive  him  ?  Though  all  men  deny  Thee,  yet  will 
not  I.  Thou  shalt  never  wash  my  feet.  Lord,  not 
my  feet  only,  but  also  my  hands  and  my  head.  I 
know  not  the  man.  Lord,  Thou  knowest  all  things : 
thou  knowest  that  I  love  Thee."  And,  to  crown  all 
his  impertinent  and  indecent  speeches,  "Not  so.  Lord, 
for  I  have  never  eaten  anything  that  is  common 
or  unclean."  And  then,  in  that  charity  which  shall 
cover  the  multitude  of  sins,  "Forasmuch  then  as  God 
gave  them  the  like  gift  as  he  did  unto  us  ;  what 
was  I  that  I  could  withstand  God?"  These  are 
Peter"'s  unmistakable  footprints.  Hasty,  headlong, 
speaking  impertinently  and  unadvisedly,  ready  to 
repent,  ever  wading  into  waters  too  deep  for  him, 
and  ever  turning  to  his  Master  again  like  a  little 
child.  Peter  was  grieved  because  He  said  unto  him 
the  third  time,  Lovest  thou  me  ?  And  he  said  unto 
Him,  Lord,  thou  knowest  all  things  :  Thou  knowest 
that  I  love  Thee. 

The  evangelical  Churches  of  Chi'istendom  have  no 
duty  and  no  interest  to  dispute  with  the  Church  of 


48  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

Rome  either  as  to  Peter's  primacy  among  the  twelve 
disciples,  or  as  to  his  visits  to  Rome,  or  as  to  his 
death  by  martyrdom  in  that  city.  If  the  Church 
of  Rome  is  satisfied  about  the  historical  truth  of 
Peter's  missionary  work  in  the  west,  we  are  satisfied. 
All  that  can  be  truthfully  told  us  about  Peter  we 
shall  welcome.  We  cannot  be  told  too  much  about 
Peter.  And  as  to  his  primacy  that  Rome  makes  so 
much  of,  we  cannot  read  our  New  Testament  with- 
out coming  on  proofs  on  every  page  that  Peter  held 
a  foremost  place  among  the  twelve  disciples.  In 
that  also  we  agree  with  our  friends.  Four  times  the 
list  of  elected  men  is  given  in  the  Gospels;  and, 
while  the  order  of  the  twelve  names  varies  in  all 
other  respects,  Peter's  name  is  invariably  the  first  in 
all  the  lists,  as  Judas's  name  is  as  invariably  the  last. 
The  difference  is  this:  The  New  Testament  recognises 
a  certain  precedency  in  Peter,  whereas  the  Church 
of  Rome  claims  for  him  an  absolute  supremacy.  The 
truth  is  this.  The  precedency  and  the  supremacy 
that  Peter  holds  in  the  Four  Gospels  was  not  so 
much  appointed  him  by  his  Master;  what  supremacy 
he  held  was  conferred  upon  him  by  nature  herself. 
Peter  was  bom  a  supreme  man.  Nature  herself,  as 
we  call  her,  had,  with  her  ever-bountiful  and  original 
hands,  stamped  his  supremacy  upon  Peter  before  he 
was  bom.  And  when  he  came  to  be  a  disciple  of 
Jesus  Christ  he  entered  on,  and  continued  to  hold, 
that  natural  and  aboriginal  supremacy  over  all  in- 
ferior men,  till  a  still  more  superior  and  supreme 
man  arose  and  took  Peter's  supremacy  away  from 
him.     We  all  have  the  same  supremacy  that  Peter 


PETER  49 

had  when  we  are  placed  alongside  of  men  who  are 
less  gifted  in  intellect,  and  in  will,  and  in  character, 
than  we  are  gifted.  Peter's  gifts  of  mind,  and  force 
of  character,  and  warmth  of  heart,  and  generosity  of 
utterance — all  these  things  gave  Peter  the  foremost 
place  in  the  Apostolic  Church  till  Paul  arose.  But 
Peter,  remarkable  and  outstanding  man  as  he  was, 
had  neither  the  natural  ability  nor  the  educational 
advantages  of  Saul  of  Tarsus.  His  mind  was  neither 
so  deep  nor  so  strong  nor  so  many-sided  nor  at  all 
so  fine  and  so  fruitful  as  was  Paul's  incomparable 
mind.  And  as  a  consequence  he  was  never  able  to 
come  within  sight  of  the  work  that  Paul  alone  could 
do.  But,  at  the  same  time,  and  till  Paul  arose  and  all 
but  totally  eclipsed  all  the  disciples  who  had  been 
in  Christ  before  him,  Peter  stood  at  the  head  of 
the  apostolate,  and  so  leaves  a  deeper  footprint  on 
the  pages  of  the  Four  Gospels  at  any  rate,  than  any 
of  the  other  eleven  disciples. 

John  was  intuitive,  meditative,  mystical.  Philip 
was  phlegmatic,  perhaps.  Thomas  would  appear  to 
have  been  melancholy  and  morose.  While  Peter  was 
sanguine  and  enthusiastic  and  extreme  both  for 
good  and  for  evil,  beyond  them  all.  Peter  was 
naturally  and  constitutionally  of  the  enthusiastic 
temperament,  and  his  conversion  and  call  to  the 
discipleship  did  not  decompose  or  at  all  suppress  his 
true  nature;  the  primal  elements  of  his  character 
remained,  and  the  original  balance  and  the  propor- 
tion of  those  elements  remained.  The  son  of  Jonas 
was,  to  begin  with,  a  man  of  the  strongest,  the  most 
wilful,  and  the  most  wayward  impulses;  impulses 


50  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

that,  but  for  the  watchfulness  and  the  prayerfuhiess 
of  his  Master,  might  easily  have  become  the  most 
headlong  and  destructive  passions.  "Christ  gives 
him  a  little  touch,"  says  Thomas  Goodwin,  "  of  some 
wildness  and  youth  fulness  that  had  been  in  Peter's 
spirit  before  Christ  had  to  do  with  him.  When 
thou  wast  young  thou  girdedst  thyself  and  walkedst 
whither  thou  wouldest.  But  when  thou  art  old, 
thou  shalt  stretch  forth  thy  hands,  and  another 
shall  gird  thee,  and  carry  thee  whither  thou  wouldest 
not.  Peter  had  had  his  vagaries,  and  had  lived 
as  he  liked,  and,  Peter,  says  Christ  to  him,  when 
thou  art  hung  up  by  the  heels  upon  a  cross,  there 
to  be  bound  to  thy  good  behaviour,  see  that  thou, 
remembering  what  thou  wast  when  young,  show 
them  thy  valour  ami  thy  resolution  when  thou 
comest  to  that  conflict ;  and  Peter  remembered  it, 
and  was  moved  by  itX-2  Peter  i.  14."  Such,  then, 
was  Peter's  so  perilous  temperament,  which  he  had 
inherited  from  his  ^ther  Jonas.  But  by  degrees, 
and  under  the  teaching,  the  example,  and  the 
training  of  his  Master,  Peter's  too-hot  heart  was 
gradually  brought  under  control  till  it  became  the 
seat  in  Peter's  bosom  of  a  deep,  pure,  deathless  love 
and  adoration  for  Jesus  Christ.  Amid  all  Peter's 
stumbles  and  falls  this  always  brought  him  right 
again  and  set  him  on  his  feet  again — his  absolutely 
enthusiastic  love  and  adoration  for  his  Master. 
This,  indeed,  after  his  Master's  singular  grace  to 
Peter,  was  always  the  redeeming  and  restraining 
principle  in  Peter's  wayward  and  wilful  life.  To 
the  very  end   of  his  three  years  with  his  Master, 


PETER  51 

Peter  was  full  of  a  most  immature  character  and  an 
unreduced  and  unbridled  mind  and  heart.  He  had 
the  making  of  a  very  noble  man  in  him,  but  he  was 
not  easily  made,  and  his  making  cost  both  him  and 
his  Master  clear.  At  the  same  time,  blame  Peter  as 
much  as  you  like ;  dwell  upon  the  faults  of  his 
temperament,  and  the  defects  of  his  character,  and 
the  scandals  of  his  conduct,  as  much  as  you  like ;  I 
defy  you  to  deny  that,  with  it  all,  he  was  not  a  very 
attractive  and  9,  very  lovable  man.  "The  worst  j 
disease  of  the  human  heart  is  cold.""  Well,  with  all  ! 
his  faults,  and  he  was  full  of  them,  a  cold  heart  was  ; 
not  one  of  them.  All  Peter's  faults,  indeed,  lay  in 
the  heat  of  his  heart.  He  was  too  hot-hearted,  too 
impulsive,  too  enthusiastic.  His  hot  heart  was 
always  in  his  mouth,  and  he  spoke  it  all  out  many  a 
time  when  he  should  have  held  his  peace.  So  many 
faults  had  Peter,  and  so  patent  and  on  the  surface  did 
they  lie,  that  you  might  very  easily  take  a  too  hasty 
and  a  too  superficial  estimate  of  Peter's  real  depth 
and  strength  and  value.  And  if  Peter  was  for  too 
long  like  the  sand  rather  than  like  the  rock  his 
Master  had  so  nobly  named  him,  the  sand  will  one 
day  settle  into  rock,  and  into  rock  of  a  quality  and 
a  quantity  to  build  a  temple  with.  If  Peter  is  now 
too  forward  to  speak,  he  will  in  the  end  be  as  for- 
ward to  suffer.  The  time  will  come  when  Peter 
will  act  up  to  all  his  outspoken  ardours  and  high 
enthusiasms.  In  so  early  designating  the  son  of 
Jonas  a  rock,  his  Master  was  but  antedating  some  of 
Simon's  coming  and  most  characteristic  graces.  His 
Divine   Master   saw   in   Simon   latent   qualities   of 


52  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

courage,  and  fidelity,  and  endurance,  and  evan- 
gelical humility  that  never  as  yet  had  fully  unfolded 
themselves  amid  the  untoward  influences  round  about 
his  life.  In  any  case,  an  absolute  master  may  surely 
name  his  own  servant  by  any  name  that  pleases  him; 
especially  a  Royal  Master ;  for  the  Sovereign  in  every 
kingdom  is  the  true  fountain  of  honour.  What- 
ever, then,  may  be  the  true  and  full  explanation, 
suffice  it  to  us  to  know  that  our  Lord  thus  saluted 
Simon,  and  said  to  him,  Simon,  son  of  Jonas,  thou 
shalt  be  called  Cephas,  which  is,  by  interpretation, 
a  rock. 

Of  the  four  outstanding  temperaments  then, 
Peter's  temperament  was  of  the  ardent  and  en- 
thusiastic order.  And,  indeed,  a  deep-springing, 
strong  -  flowing,  divinely  -  purified,  and  divinely- 
directed  enthusiasm  is  always  the  best  temperament 
for  the  foundation  and  the  support  of  the  truly  pro- 
phetic, apostolic,  and  evangelic  character.  For  what 
is  enthusiasm  ?  AVliat  is  it  but  the  heart,  and  the 
imagination,  and  the  whole  man,  body  and  soul,  set 
on  fire  ?  And  the  election,  the  call,  the  experience, 
and  the  promised  reward  of  the  true  prophet,  apostle, 
and  evangelist,  are  surely  enough  to  set  on  fire  and 
keep  on  fire  a  heart  of  stone.  It  was  one  of  the 
prophetic  notes  of  the  coming  Messiah's  own  tem- 
perament that  the  zeal  of  God's  house  would  eat 
Him  up.  And  there  is  no  surer  sign  that  the  same 
mind  that  was  found  in  Jesus  Christ  is  taking  pos- 
session of  one  of  His  disciples  than  that  he  more 
and  more  manifests  a  keen,  kindling,  enthusiastic 
temper  toward  wliatsoever  persons  and  causes  are 


PETER  53 

honest,  and  just,  and  pure,  and  lovely,  and  of  good 
report;  just  as  there  is  nothing  more  unlike  the 
mind  and  heart  of  Jesus  Christ  than  the  mind  and 
heart  of  a  man  who  cares  for  none  of  these  things. 
Let  us  take  Peter,  come  to  perfection,  for  our 
pattern  and  our  prelate ;  and,  especially,  let  us 
watch,  and  work,  and  pray  against  a  cold  heart,  a 
chilling  temper,  a  distant,  selfish,  indifferent  mind. 

Closely  connected  with  Peter's  peculiar  tempera- 
ment, and,  indeed,  a  kind  of  compensation  for  being 
so  possessed  by  it,  was  his  exquisite  sense  of  sin. 
We  see  Peter's  singular  sensitiveness  and  tender- 
ness of  spirit  in  this  respect  coming  out  in  a  most 
impressive  and  memorable  way  on  the  occasion  of 
his  call  to  the  discipleship.  Andrew  was  not  an 
impenitent  man.  John  was  not  a  hard-hearted 
man.  But  though  they  both  saw  and  shared  in  the 
miraculous  draught  of  fishes  on  the  sea  of  Galilee, 
Peter  alone  remembered  his  sins,  and  broke  down 
under  them,  in  the  presence  of  the  power  and  grace 
of  Christ.  "Depart  from  me,  O  Lord,  for  I  am 
a  sinful  man."  "  No ;  fear  not,"  said  his  Master  to 
Peter,  "for  from  henceforth  thou  shalt  so  catch  men." 
Peter's  prostrating  penitence  at  such  a  moment 
marked  Peter  out  as  the  true  captain  of  that  fishing 
fleet  that  was  so  soon  to  set  sail  under  the  colours 
of  the  Cross  to  catch  the  souls  of  men  for  salvation. 
That  sudden  and  complete  prostration  before  Christ 
at  that  moment  seated  Peter  in  a  supremacy  and  in 
a  prelacy  that  has  never  been  taken  from  him.  And 
there  is  no  surer  sign  of  an  evangelically  penitent 
and   a   truly   spiritual   man   than   this  —  that    his 


54  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

prosperity  in  life  always  calls  back  to  him  his  past 
sins  and  his  abiding  ill-desert.  He  is  not  a  novice 
in  the  spiritual  life  to  whom  prosperity  is  as  much 
a  means  of  grace  as  adversity.  They  are  wise 
merchantmen  who  make  gain  in  every  gale;  who  are 
enriched  in  their  souls  not  only  in  times  of  trial  and 
loss,  but  are  still  more  softened  and  sanctified  amid 
all  their  gains  and  all  their  comforts  both  of  outward 
and  inward  estate.  Well  may  those  mariners  praise 
the  Lord  for  His  goodness  whose  ships  come  home 
sinking  with  the  merchandise  they  have  made  in  the 
deep  waters.  But  still  more  when,  with  all  their 
prosperity,  they  have  the  broken  heart  to  say.  He 
hath  not  dealt  with  us  after  our  sins,  nor  rewarded 
us  according  to  our  iniquities. 

It  was  Peter's  deep  and  rich  temperament,  all  but 
completely  sanctified,  that  made  Peter  so  forgetful 
of  himself  as  a  preacher,  and  so  superior  to  all  men's 
judgments,  and  so  happy,  to  use  his  own  noble  words, 
to  be  reproached  for  the  name  of  Christ.  Can  you 
imagine,  have  you  come  through  any  experience 
that  enables  you  to  imagine,  what  Peter's  thoughts 
would  be  as  he  mounted  the  pulpit  stairs  to  preach 
Judas's  funeral  sermon?  Judas  had  betrayed  his 
Master.  Yes.  But  Peter  himself;  Peter  the 
preacher;  had  denied  his  Master  with  oaths  and 
curses.  And  yet,  there  is  Peter  in  the  pulpit,  while 
Judas  lies  a  cast-out  suicide  in  Aceldama  !  '  O  the 
depths  of  the  Divine  mercy  to  me!  That  I  who 
sinned  with  Judas ;  that  I  who  had  made  my  bed  in 
hell  beside  Judas  ;  should  be  held  in  this  honour, 
and  should  be  ministering  to  the  holy  brethren  !     O 


PETER  55 

to  grace  how  great  a  debtor!'  And  again,  just 
think  what  all  must  have  been  in  Peter's  mind  as  he 
stood  up  in  Solomon's  porch  to  preach  the  Pentecost 
sermon.  That  terrible  sermon  in  which  he  charged 
the  rulers  and  the  people  of  Jerusalem  with  the 
dreadful  crime  of  denying  the  Holy  One  and  the 
Just  in  the  presence  of  Pilate.  While  he,  the 
preacher,  had  done  the  very  same  thing  before  a  few 
serving  men  and  serving  women.  You  may  be  sure 
that  it  was  as  much  to  himself  as  to  the  murderers 
of  the  Prince  of  Life  that  Peter  went  on  that  day  to 
preach  and  say,  "  Repent,  therefore,  that  your  sins 
may  be  blotted  out ;  since  God  hath  sent  His  Son 
to  bless  you,  in  turning  away  every  one  of  you  from 
his  iniquities."  The  truth  is,  by  this  time,  the 
unspeakably  awful  sinfulness  of  Peter's  own  sin  had 
completely  drunk  up  all  the  human  shame  of  it.  If 
they  who  know  about  Peter's  sin  choose  to  reproach 
him  for  it,  let  them  do  it.  It  is  now  a  small  matter 
to  Peter  to  be  judged  of  men's  judgment.  They 
sang  David's  Psalms  in  Solomon's  porch ;  and  that 
day  Peter  and  the  penitent  people  must  surely  have 
sung  and  said,  "  Wash  me  thoroughly  from  mine 
iniquity,  and  cleanse  me  from  my  sin.  For  I 
acknowledge  my  transgression,  and  my  sin  is  ever 
before  me.  Restore  to  me  the  joy  of  thy  salvation, 
and  uphold  me  with  thy  free  spirit.  Then  will  I 
teach  transgressors  thy  ways,  and  sinners  shall  be 
converted  unto  thee."  And  if  preachers  pronounced 
benedictions  after  their  sermons  in  those  days,  then 
we  surely  have  Peter's  Solomon's-porch  benediction 
preserved  to  us  in  these  apostolic  words  of  his :  "  Ye 


56  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

therefore,  beloved,  seeing  ye  know  all  these  things, 
beware  lest  ye  also  fall  from  your  steadfastness. 
But  grow  in  grace,  and  in  the  knowledge  of  our 
Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  to  whom  be  glory 
both  now  and  for  ever.     Amen.'*'' 


JOHN  57 


LXXVI 

JOHN 

|OHN,  fisherman's  son  and  all,  was  bom 
with  one  of  the  finest  minds  that  have 
ever  been  bestowed  by  God's  goodness 
upon  any  of  the  sons  of  men.  We 
sometimes  call  John  the  Christian 
Plato.  Now  when  we  say  that  our  meaning  is  that 
John  had  by  nature  an  extraordinarily  rich  and  deep 
and  lofty  and  beautiful  mind.  John  had  a  profoundly 
intuitive  mind.  An  inward,  meditating,  brooding, 
imaginative,  mystical,  spiritual  mind.  Plato  had 
all  that,  even  more  perhaps  than  John.  But,  then, 
Plato  had  not  John's  privileges  and  opportunities. 
Plato  had  not  been  brought  up  on  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, and  he  had  only  had  Socrates  for  his  master. 
And  thus  it  is  that  he  has  only  been  able  to  leave 
to  us  the  Symposium,  and  the  Apology,  and  the 
Phcedo.  AVhereas  John  has  left  to  us  his  Gospel, 
and  his  Epistles,  and  his  Apocalypse.  John  has 
the  immortal  honour  of  having  conceived  and  medi- 
tated and  indited  the  most  magnificent  passage 
that  has  ever  been  written  with  pen  and  ink.  The 
first  fourteen  verses  of  John's  Gospel  stand  alone 


58  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

and  supreme  over  all  other  literature,  sacred  and 
profane.  The  Word  was  God,  and  the  Word 
WAS  MADE  flesh.  These  two  sentences  out  of  John 
contain  far  more  philosophy;  far  more  grace,  and 
truth,  and  beauty,  and  love  ;  than  all  the  rest  that 
has  ever  been  written  by  pen  of  man,  or  spoken  by 
tongue  of  man  or  angel.  Philo  also  has  whole 
volumes  about  the  Logos.  But  the  Logos  in  Philo, 
in  Newman's  words,  is  but  a  "  notion "" :  a  noble 
notion,  indeed,  but  still  a  cold,  a  bare,  and  an 
inoperative  notion.  Whereas  the  Word  of  John 
is  a  Divine  Person ;  and,  moreover,  a  Divine  Person 
in  human  nature :  a  revelation,  an  experience,  and 
a  possession,  of  which  John  himself  is  the  living 
witness  and  the  infallible  proof.  I  have  heard  of 
him  by  the  hearing  of  the  ear,  said  Philo.  But 
mine  eyes  have  seen  and  mine  hands  have  handled 
the  Word  of  Life,  declares  John.  And,  with  the 
Word  made  flesh,  and  set  before  such  eyes  as 
John's  eyes  were,  no  wonder  that  we  have  such 
books  from  his  hands  as  the  Fourth  Gospel,  the 
First  Epistle,  and  the  Apocalypse. 

How  did  John  sink  so  deep  into  the  unsearchable 
things  of  his  Master,  while  all  the  other  disciples 
stood  all  their  discipleship  days  on  the  surface.? 
What  was  it  in  John  that  lifted  him  so  high  above 
Peter,  and  Thomas,  and  Philip,  and  made  him  first 
such  a  disciple,  and  then  such  an  apostle,  of  wisdom 
and  of  love  ?  For  one  thing  it  was  his  gift  and 
grace  of  meditation.  John  listened  as  none  of 
them  listened  to  all  that  his  Master  said,  both  in 
conversation,  and  in  debate,  and  in  discourse.    John 


JOHN  59 

thought  and  thought  continually  on  wliat  he  saw 
and  heard.  The  seed  fell  into  good  ground.  John 
was  one  of  those  happy  men,  and  a  prince  among 
them,  who  have  a  deep  root  in  themselves.  And 
the  good  seed  sprung  up  in  him  an  hundredfold. 
The  first  Psalm  was  all  fulfilled  in  John.  For  he 
meditated  day  and  night  on  his  Master,  and  on 
his  Master's  words,  till  he  was  like  David's  tree  that 
was  planted  by  the  rivers  of  water  so  that  its  leaf 
never  withered,  nor  was  its  fruit  ever  wanting  in  its 
season.  Meditate  on  Divine  things,  my  brethren. 
Be  men  of  mind,  and  be  sure  you  be  men  of  medita- 
tion. Mind  is  the  highest  thing,  and  meditation  is 
the  highest  use  of  mind;  it  is  the  true  root,  and 
sap,  and  fatness  of  all  faith  and  prayer  and  spiritual 
obedience.  Why  are  our  minds  so  blighted  and  so 
barren  in  the  things  of  God  ?  Why  have  we  so 
little  faith?  Why  have  we  so  little  hold  of  the 
reality  and  nobility  of  Divine  things  ?  The  reason 
is  plain — we  seldom  or  never  meditate.  We  read 
our  New  Testament,  on  occasion,  and  we  hear  it 
read,  but  we  do  not  take  time  to  meditate.  We 
pray  sometimes,  or  we  pretend  to  pray ;  but  do  we 
ever  set  ourselves  to  prepare  our  hearts  for  the 
mercy-seat  by  strenuous  meditation  on  who  and 
what  we  are ;  on  who  and  what  He  is  to  whom 
we  pretend  to  pray ;  and  on  what  it  is  we  are  to 
say,  and  do,  and  ask,  and  receive  ?  We  may  never 
have  heard  of  Philo,  but  we  all  belong  to  his  barren 
school.  The  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  but  a  name  and 
a  notion  to  us ;  a  sacred  name  and  notion,  it  may  be, 
but  still  only  a  name  and  a  notion.     The  thought 


60  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

of  Jesus  Christ  seldom  or  never  quickens,  or  over- 
awes, or  gladdens  our  heart.  Whereas,  when  we 
once  become  men  of  meditation,  Jesus  Christ,  and 
the  whole  New  Testament  concerning  Him,  and  the 
whole  New  Jerusalem  where  He  is  preparing  a  place 
for  us,  will  become  more  to  us  than  our  nearest 
friend :  more  to  us  than  this  city  with  all  its  most 
pressing  affairs.  Our  conventional  morning  chapter 
about  what  Jesus  Christ  did  and  said,  and  is  at 
this  moment  doing  and  saying,  will  then  be  far  more 
real  to  us  than  all  our  morning  papers  and  all  oui 
business  letters.  Nor  is  this  the  peculiar  oppor- 
tunity and  privilege  of  men  of  learning  only.  John 
was  not  a  man  of  learning.  John  was  described  as 
an  ignorant  and  an  unlearned  man,  though  all  the 
time  he  was  carrying  about  in  his  mind  the  whole 
of  the  Fourth  Gospel.  My  brethren,  meditate  on 
John's  Gospel.  Meditate  on  that  which  was  not 
made  without  long,  and  deep,  and  divinely-assisted 
meditation.  You  may  be  the  most  unlearned  man 
in  this  learned  city  to-night,  and  yet  such  is  John's 
Gospel,  and  such  is  the  power  and  the  blessedness 
of  meditation  on  it,  that  John  will  look  down  on 
you  after  your  house  is  asleep  to-night,  and  will  say 
over  you,  as  you  now  sit,  and  now  stand,  and  now 
kneel  with  his  Gospel  in  your  hands — "  That  which 
we  have  seen  and  heard  declare  we  unto  you,  that 
you  may  have  fellowship  with  us;  and  truly  our 
fellowship  is  with  the  Father  and  with  His  Son 
Jesus  Christ.'" 

Meditation   with   imagination.      All   that  John 
writes  is  touched  and  informed  and  exalted  with  this 


JOHN  61 

divinest  of  all  the  talents.  The  Apocalypse,  with 
all  its  splendours,  was  in  Code's  mind  toward  us 
when  He  said,  Let  us  make  Zebedee's  son,  and  let 
us  make  him  full  of  eyes  within.  Do  not  be  afraid 
at  the  word  "  imagination,"  my  brethren.  It  has 
been  sadly  ill-used,  both  name  and  thing.  But  it  is 
a  noble  name  and  a  noble  thing.  There  is  nothing 
so  noble  in  all  that  is  within  us.  Our  outward 
eye  is  the  noblest  of  all  our  outward  organs,  and 
our  inward  eye  is  the  noblest  of  all  our  inward 
Orleans.  And  its  noblest  use  is  to  be  filled  full  of 
Jesus  Christ,  as  John's  inward  eye  was.  John  did 
not  write  his  Apocalypse  without  that  great  gift 
in  its  fullest  exercise.  And  we  cannot  read  aright 
what  he  has  written  without  that  same  exercise. 
We  cannot  pray  aright  without  it.  We  cannot 
have  either  faith  or  love  aright  without  it.  And 
just  in  the  measure  we  have  imagination,  and  know 
Jiow  to  use  it,  we  shall  have  one  of  the  noblest 
instruments  in  our  own  hand  for  the  enriching  and 
perfecting  of  our  whole  intellectual  and  spiritual  life. 
I  do  not  say  that  the  Book  of  Revelation  is  the 
noblest  product  of  John's  noble  imagination.  For, 
all  that  was  within  John,  imagination  and  medita- 
tion and  love,  was  all  moved  of  the  Holy  Ghost  up 
to  its  highest  and  its  best  in  the  production  of  the 
great  Prologue  to  the  Fourth  Gospel.  At  the 
same  time,  it  is  in  the  Revelation  that  John's 
glorified  imagination  spreads  out  its  most  golden 
wings  and  waves  them  in  the  light  of  heaven.  Only 
it  will  take  both  meditation  and  imagination  to  see 
that.     But  to  see  that   will   be   one   of  our   best 


62  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

lessons  from  this  greatly-gifted  and  greatly-blessed 
apostle  to-night. 

And,  then,  as  was  sure  to  come  to  pass,  the  dis- 
ciple of  meditation  and  imagination  becomes  at  last 
the  apostle  of  love.  At  the  Last  Supper,  and  as 
soon  as  Judas  had  gone  out,  Jesus  said  to  the 
eleven,  "  A  new  commandment  I  give  unto  you,  that 
ye  love  one  another.  As  I  have  loved  you,  that  ye 
also  love  one  another.  By  this  shall  all  men  know 
that  ye  are  my  disciples,  if  ye  have  love  one  to 
another.*"  Eleven  thoughtful  and  loving  hearts 
heard  that  new  commandment  and  the  comfort 
that  accompanied  it.  But  in  no  other  heart  did 
that  Divine  seed  fall  into  such  good  ground  as  in 
his  heart  who  at  that  moment  lay  on  Jesus'  bosom. 
"  Little  children,  love  one  another,"  was  the  aged 
apostle's  whole  benediction  as  the  young  men 
carried  him  into  the  church  of  Ephesus  every 
Lord's  Day.  And  when  he  was  asked  why  he 
always  said  that,  and  never  said  any  more  than  that, 
he  always  replied,  "  Because  this  is  our  Lord's  sole 
commandment,  and  if  we  all  fulfil  this,  nothing 
more  is  needed.  For  love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the 
law." 


MATTHEW  63 


LXXVII 
MATTHEW 

ATTHEAV  loved  money.  Matthew, 
like  Judas,  must  have  money.  With 
clean  hands  if  he  could ;  but,  clean 
hands  or  unclean,  Matthew  must  have 
money.  Now,  the  surest  way  and  the 
shortest  way  for  Matthew  to  make  money  in  the 
Galilee  of  that  day  was  to  take  sides  with  Caesar 
and  to  become  one  of  Caesar's  tax-gatherers.  This, 
to  be  sure,  would  be  for  Matthew  to  sell  himself 
to  the  service  of  the  oppressors  of  his  people ;  but 
Matthew  made  up  his  mind  and  determined  to  do  it. 
Matthew  will  set  his  face  like  a  flint  for  a  few  years 
and  then  he  will  retire  from  his  toll-booth  to  spend 
his  rich  old  age  in  peace  and  quietness.  He  will 
furnish  a  country-house  for  himself  up  among  the 
hills  of  Galilee,  and  he  will  devote  his  last  days  to 
deeds  of  devotion  and  charity.  And  thus  it  was 
that  IVIatthew,  a  son  of  Abraham,  was  found  in  the 
unpatriotic  and  ostracised  position  of  a  publican  in 
Capernaum.  The  publicans  were  hard-hearted, 
extortionate,  and  utterly  demoralised  men.  Their 
peculiar  employment  either  already  found  them  all 
that,  or  else  it  soon  made  them  all  that.    "  Publicans 


64  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

and  sinners  " ;  "publicans  and  harlots" — we  continu- 
ally come  on  language  like  that  in  the  pages  of  the 
four  Gospels.  Well,  Matthew  had  now  for  a  long 
time  been  a  publican  in  Capernaum,  and  he  was  fast 
becoming  a  rich  man.  But,  over  against  that,  he  had 
to  content  himself  with  a  publican's  companionships, 
and  with  a  publican's  inevitable  evil  conscience. 
Matthew  could  not  help  grinding  the  faces  of  the 
poor.  He  could  not  help  squeezing  the  last  drop 
of  blood  out  of  this  and  that  helpless  debtor.  His 
business  would  not  let  Matthew  stop  to  think  who 
was  a  widow,  and  who  was  an  orphan,  and  who 
was  being  cruelly  treated.  The  debt  was  due,  it  was 
too  long  overdue,  and  it  must  be  paid,  if  both  the 
debtor  and  his  children  have  to  be  sold  in  the 
slave-market  to  pay  the  debt. 

Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the  carpenter's  son,  knew 
Matthew  the  publican  quite  well.  Perhaps,  only 
too  well.  Jesus  and  His  mother  had  by  this  time 
migrated  from  Nazareth  to  Capernaum.  He  had 
often  been  in  Matthew's  toll-booth  with  His  mother's 
taxes,  and  with  other  poor  people's  taxes.  Even  if 
not  for  Himself  and  for  his  widowed  mother,  the 
carpenter  would  often  leave  His  bench  to  go  to 
Matthew's  toll-booth  to  expostulate  with  him,  and 
to  negotiate  with  him,  and  to  become  surety  to  him 
for  this  and  that  poor  neighbour  of  His  who  had 
fallen  into  sickness,  and  into  a  debt  that  he  was  not 
able  to  pay.  The  sweat  of  Jesus'  own  brow  had 
oftener  than  once  gone  to  settle  Matthew's  extor- 
tionate charges.  '  If  he  hath  wi'onged  thee,  or  oweth 
thee  aught,  put  that  to  mine  account.     I,  Jesus,  the 


MATTHEW  65 

son  of  Joseph,  have  written  it  with  mine  own  hand,  I 
will  repay  it ' — that  would  stand  in  Matthew's  books 
over  and  over  again,  till  Matthew  was  almost  ready 
to  sell  the  surety  Himself.  But  by  this  time  Jesus, 
first  of  Nazareth  and  now  of  Capernaum,  who  had 
been  every  poor  widow's  cautioner  for  her  rent  and 
for  her  taxes,  had  left  His  father's  inherited  work- 
shop, and  had  been  baptized  by  John  into  a  still 
larger  Suretyship.  And  thus  it  is  that  He  is  back 
again  in  Capernaum,  no  longer  a  hard-working  car- 
penter, mortgaging  all  His  week's  wages  and  more 
for  all  His  poor  neighbours.  But  he  is  now  the 
Messiah  Himself !  And  Matthew  in  his  toll-booth 
has  a  thousand  thoughts  about  all  that,  till  he  cannot 
get  his  columns  to  come  right  all  he  can  count.  And 
till  one  day,  just  as  He  was  passing  Matthew's  well- 
worn  doorstep,  a  widow  woman  of  the  city,  with  her 
child  in  her  arms,  rushed  up  against  our  Lord,  and 
exclaimed  to  Him  :  "Avenge  me  of  mine  adversary! " 
till  she  could  not  tell  Him  her  heart-breaking  tale 
for  sobs  and  tears.  And  then,  with  that  never-to- 
be-forgotten  look  and  accent  of  mingled  anger  and 
mercy,  our  Lord  went  immediately  into  the  publican's 
office  and  said  to  him  :  '  Matthew,  thou  must  leave 
all  this  life  of  thine  and  come  and  follow  Me.' 
Matthew  had  always  tried  to  stand  well  out  of  eye- 
shot of  our  Lord  when  He  was  preaching.  He  felt 
sure  that  the  Preacher  was  not  well  disposed  to- 
ward him,  and  his  conscience  would  continually  say 
to  his  face.  How  could  He  be?  But  at  that  so 
commanding  gesture,  and  at  those  so  commanding 
words,  the  chains  of  a  lifetime  of  cruelty  and  extor- 

s 


66  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

tion  fell  on  the  floor  of  the  receipt  of  custom ;  till, 
scarcely  taking  time  to  clasp  up  his  books  and  to 
lock  up  his  presses,  Matthew  the  publican  of  Caper- 
naum rose  up  and  followed  our  Lord. 

Matthew  does  not  say  so  himself,  but  Luke  is 
careful  to  tell  us  that  Matthew  made  a  great  feast 
that  very  night,  and  gathered  into  it  a  supper-party 
of  his  former  friends  and  acquaintances  that  they 
might  see  with  their  own  eyes  the  Master  that  he 
is  henceforth  to  confess,  and  to  follow,  and  to  obey. 
What  a  sight  to  our  eyes,  far  more  than  to  theirs, 
is  Matthew's  supper-table  to-night!  There  sits 
the  publican  himself  at  the  head  of  the  table,  and 
the  erewhile  carpenter  of  Capernaum  in  the  seat 
of  honour  beside  him.  And  then  the  whole  house 
is  full  of  what  we  may  quite  correctly  describe  as 
a  company  of  social  and  religious  outcasts.  An 
outcast  with  us  usually  means  some  one  who  has 
impoverished,  and  demoralised,  and  debauched  him- 
self with  indolence  and  with  vice  till  he  is  both 
penniless  in  purse  and  reprobate  in  character. 
We  have  few,  if  any,  rich  outcasts  in  our  city  and 
society.  But  the  outcast  publicans  of  that  night  were 
well-to-do,  if  not  absolutely  wealthy  men.  They 
were  men  who  had  made  themselves  rich,  and  had 
at  the  same  time  made  themselves  outcasts,  by  siding 
with  the  oppressors  of  their  people  and  by  exacting 
of  the  people  more  than  was  their  due.  And  they 
were,  as  a  consequence,  excommunicated  from  the 
Church,  and  ostracised  from  all  patriotic  and  social 
and  family  life.  What,  then,  must  the  more  thought- 
ful of  them  have  felt  as  they  entered  Matthew'*s 


MATTHEW  67 

supper-room  that  night  and  sat  down  at  the  same 
table  with  a  very  prophet,  and  some  said — Matthew 
himself  had  said  it  in  his  letter  of  invitation — more 
than  a  prophet.  And,  then,  all  through  the  supper, 
if  He  was  a  prophet  He  was  so  unlike  a  prophet ; 
and,  especially,  so  unlike  the  last  of  the  prophets. 
He  was  so  affable,  so  humble,  so  kind,  so  gentle, 
with  absolutely  nothing  at  all  in  His  words  or  in 
His  manner  to  upbraid  any  of  them,  or  in  any  way 
to  make  any  of  them  in  anything  uneasy.  They 
had  all  supped  with  Matthew  before,  but  that  was 
the  first  night  for  many  years  that  any  man  with 
any  good  name  to  lose  had  broken  bread  at  the 
publican's  table.  He  had  given  suppers  on  occasion 
before,  but  Jesus  had  never  been  invited,  nor  Peter, 
nor  James,  nor  John.  Ajid  it  was  the  presence  of 
Jesus  and  His  disciples  that  night  that  led  to  the 
scene  which  so  shines  on  this  page  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. For  there  were  Pharisees  in  Capernaum  in 
those  days,  just  as  there  were  publicans  and  sinners. 
Ajid  j  ust  as  the  publicans  were  ever  on  the  outlook 
for  more  money  ;  and  just  as  the  sinners  were  ever 
on  the  outlook  for  another  supper  and  another 
dance;  so  the  Pharisees  were  ever  on  the  outlook 
for  a  fresh  scandal,  and  for  something  to  find  fault 
with  in  their  neighbours.  "Why  eateth  your 
Master  with  publicans  and  sinners  ?  "  the  Pharisees 
of  Capernaum  demanded  of  Jesus'  disciples.  And 
the  disciples  were  still  too  much  Pharisees  them- 
selves to  be  able  to  give  a  very  easy  answer  to  that 
question.  But  Jesus  had  his  answer  ready.  Grace 
was  poured  into  His  lips  at  that  opportune  moment 


6»  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

till  He  replied :  "  They  that  be  whole  need  not  a 
physician,  but  they  that  are  sick.  I  came  not  to 
call  the  righteous,  but  sinners  to  repentance."  Long 
years  afterwards,  when  Matthew  was  writing  tliis 
autobiographic  passage  in  his  Gospel,  the  whole 
scene  of  that  supper-party  rose  up  before  him  like 
yesternight.  '  Jesus,  now  in  glory,'  he  said  to  him- 
self, '  was  sitting  here,  as  it  were.  James  and  John 
there.  Myself  at  the  door,  divided  between  wel- 
coming my  old  companions  and  warning  them  off. 
Some  Pharisees  from  the  synagogue  are  coming  up 
with  their  lamps.  Then  their  loud  and  angry 
voices;  and  then  His  voice  with  more  pity  in  it 
than  anger,  calling  sinners  to  repentance. ^  It  was  a 
night  to  be  remembered  by  Matthew. 

When  Matthew  rose  up  and  left  all  and  followed 
our  Lord,  the  only  thing  he  took  with  him  out  of 
his  old  occupation  was  his  pen  and  ink.  And  it  is 
well  for  us  that  he  did  take  that  pen  and  ink 
with  him,  since  he  took  it  with  him  to  such 
good  purpose.  For,  never  once  did  our  Lord  sit 
down  on  a  mountain  side  or  on  a  sea-shore  to  teach 
His  disciples ;  never  once  did  He  enter  a  synagogue 
and  take  up  the  Prophets  or  the  Psalmists  to  preach; 
never  once  did  He  talk  at  any  length  by  the 
way,  that  Matthew  was  not  instantly  at  His  side. 
Till  Matthew  came  to  be  known  not  so  much  as 
Matthew  the  disciple,  or  as  the  former  publican  of 
Capernaum,  but  rather  as  that  silent  man  with  the 
sleepless  pen  and  ink-horn.  It  needed  a  practised, 
and  an  assiduous,  and  an  understanding  pen  to  take 
down  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  to  report  and 


MATTHEW  69 

an-arige  the  parables,  and  to  seize  with  such  correct- 
ness and  with  such  insight  the  terrible  sermons  of  his 
Master's  last  week  of  preaching.  But  Matthew  did 
all  that,  and  we  have  all  that  to  this  day  in  his 
Gospel.  The  bag  would  have  been  safe,  and  it 
would  have  been  kept  well  filled,  in  Matthew's  money- 
managing  hands,  but  Matthew  had  far  more  im- 
portant matters  than  the  most  sacred  money  matters 
to  attend  to.  What  a  service,  above  all  price,  were 
Matthew's  hands  ordained  to  do  as  soon  as  his 
hands  were  washed  from  sin  and  uncleanness  in  the 
Fountain  opened  in  that  day  !  What  a  service  it  was 
to  build  that  golden  bridge  by  which  so  many  of  his 
kinsmen  according  to  the  flesh  at  once  passed  over 
into  the  better  covenant,  the  Surety  of  which  covenant 
is  Christ !  "  The  Gospel  according  to  St.  Matthew : 
the  Book  of  the  generation  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  son 
of  David,  the  son  of  Abraham."  "  Saintliness  not 
forfeited  by  the  penitent,"  is  the  title  of  one  of  our 
finest  English  sermons,  and,  it  may  here  be  added, 
neither  is  service. 

"  And  Matthew  the  publican^  Now,  we  would 
never  have  known  that  but  for  Matthew  himself. 
Neither  Mark,  nor  Luke,  nor  John,  nor  Paul  ever 
calls  Matthew  by  that  bad  name.  It  is  Matthew 
himself  alone  who  in  as  many  words  says  to  us, 
"  Come,  all  ye  that  fear  God,  and  I  will  tell  what 
He  has  done  for  my  soul."  It  is  Matthew  himself 
alone  who  publishes  and  perpetuates  to  all  time  his 
own  infamy.  Ashamed  of  himself,  both  as  a  publican 
and  an  apostle,  till  he  cannot  look  up,  the  text  is 
the   only  footprint   of  himself  that  St.   Matthew 


70  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

leaves  behind  him  on  the  sands  of  Scripture.  Our 
first  Gospel  is  his  holy  workmanship,  and  this  text, 
so  deeply  imbedded  into  it,  is  the  sure  seal  of  its 
author*'s  Christian  temper  and  Apostolic  character. 
"  Position  and  epithet  are  indicative  both  of  natural 
humility  and  modesty,  as  well  as  of  evangelical  self- 
abasement.*" 

"  They  that  be  whole  need  not  a  physician,  but 
they  that  are  sick.*"  Happy  intrusion,  and  fortunate 
fault-finding  of  the  Pharisees  which  ended  in  these 
ever-blessed  words  of  our  Saviour!  And  then, 
these  words  also:  "I  am  not  come  to  call  the 
righteous,  but  sinners  to  repentance."  Sick  and 
sinful  men,  do  you  hear  that  ?  Are  you  truly  and 
sincerely  sick  with  sin?  Then  He  who  has  made 
you  sick  will  keep  you  sick  till  you  come  to  Him 
to  heal  you.  Are  you  a  sinner  with  an  evil  life 
holding  you  like  a  chain  in  a  cruel,  an  unclean,  a 
hopeless  bondage  ?     Then — 

He  comes !  the  prisoners  to  relieve, 

In  Satan's  bondage  held  ; 
The  gates  of  brass  before  Him  burst, 

The  iron  fetters  yield. 

He  comes  !  from  darkening  scales  of  vice 

To  clear  the  inward  sight ; 
And  on  the  eyeballs  of  the  blind 

To  pour  celestial  light. 

He  comes  !  the  broken  hearts  to  bind. 

The  bleeding  souls  to  cure  : 
And  with  the  treasures  of  His  grace 

T*  enrich  the  humble  poor. 


MATTHEW  71 

Are  you  that  prisoner  ?  Are  you  held  in  Satan's 
bondage?  Is  your  inward  sight  clogged  up  with 
the  scales  of  vice  ?  Is  your  heart  broken  ?  And 
is  your  very  soul  within  you  bleeding?  Are  you  a 
publican  ?  Are  you  a  sinner  ?  Are  you  a  harlot  ? 
Look  at  Matthew  with  his  Gospel  in  his  hand! 
Look  at  Zacchaeus  restoring  fourfold !  Look  at 
Mary  Magdalene,  first  at  the  sepulchre.  Look  unto 
Me,  their  Saviour  says  to  thee  also :  Look  unto  Me, 
and  be  thou  saved  also.     And  so  I  will ! 

Thy  promise  is  my  only  plea, 

With  this  I  venture  nigh  : 
Thou  callest  burden  d  souls  to  Thee, 

And  such,  O  Lord,  am  I, 


72  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 


LXXVIII 
ZACCH^US 

HERE  was  a  soft  spot  still  left  in 
Zacchaeus''s  heart,  and  that  soft  spot 
was  this :  Zacchaeus  was  as  eager  as 
any  schoolboy  in  all  Jericho  to  see 
Jesus  who  He  was.  And  like  any 
schoolboy  he  ran  before  and  climbed  up  into  a 
sycamore  tree  to  see  Jesus,  for  He  was  to  pass  that 
way.  And  simple  things  like  that,  childlike  and 
schoolboy-like  things  like  that,  always  touched  our 
Lord's  heart.  Of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  Heaven, 
He  was  wont  to  say  when  He  saw  simplicity  like 
that,  and  self-forgetfulness,  and  naturalness,  and 
impulsiveness,  or  anything  else  that  was  truly  child- 
like. We  would  not  have  done  what  Zacchaeus  did. 
We  are  too  stiff.  We  are  too  formal.  We  have 
too  much  starch  in  our  souls.  Our  souls  are  made 
of  starch,  just  as  Bishop  Andrewes's  soul  was  made 
of  sin.  But  starch  is  more  deadly  than  sin.  Your 
soul  may  be  saved  from  sin,  but  scarcely  from  starch. 
"  Curiosity  and  simplicity,"  says  Calvin,  "  are  a  sort 
of  preparation  for  faith.  Nay,  it  was  not  without 
a  certain  inspiration  from  heaven  that  Zacchaeus 
I  climbed  up  into  that  sycamore  tree.     There  was 


ZACCHiEUS  7S 

a  certain  seed  of  true  piety  in  his  heart  when  he 
so  ran  before  the  press,  and  so  climbed  up  into  that 
sycamore  tree,"  so  says  on  this  subject  the  greatest 
of  all  the  commentators  upon  it. 

Had  our  Lord  considered  public  opinion  He 
would  have  looked  straight  before  Him  when  He 
came  to  that  sycamore  tree,  and  would  not  have  let 
His  eyes  lift  till  He  was  well  past  Zacchaeus's  perch. 
But  our  Lord  was  as  simple  and  as  natural  and 
as  spontaneous  that  day  as  Zacchaeus  was  himself. 
Our  Lord  paid  no  attention  to  the  prejudices  or  to 
the  ill-will  of  the  populace.  The  more  gi'ound 
there  was  for  their  prejudices  and  their  ill-will  the 
more  reason  there  was  to  Him  why  He  should  stop 
under  Zacchaeus's  tree  and  call  him  to  come  down. 
The  windows  and  the  walls  and  the  roofs  of  Jericho 
were  all  loaded  with  sightseers  that  day,  but  our 
Lord  did  not  stop  under  any  of  them.  It  was  at 
Zacchaeus's  sycamore  tree  alone  that  our  Lord  stopped 
and  looked  up  and  said  :  "  Zacchaeus,  make  haste  and 
come  down,  for  to-day  I  must  abide  at  thy  house." 
All  Zacchaeus's  past  life,  all  his  real  blamefulness, 
all  the  people's  just  and  unjust  prejudices,  and  all 
the  bad  odour  of  Zacchaeus's  class,  it  all  did  not  for 
one  moment  turn  our  Lord  away  from  Zacchseus's 
house.  Had  our  Lord  asked  Himself — "What  will 
the  people  think  and  say.  He  would  not  have  im- 
perilled His  popularity  in  Jericho  by  sitting  at  the 
tax-gatherer's  table.  But  one  of  our  Lord's  absolute 
rules  of  life  and  conduct  was  to  make  Himself  at  all 
times  and  in  all  places  of  no  reputation.  And  thus 
it  was  that  the  thought  of  how  Jericho  would  take 


74  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

it  never  for  one  moment  entered  our  Lord^s  mind. 
Not  for  years  had  any  man  who  wished  to  stand 
well  with  the  people  so  much  as  crossed  Zacchaeus's 
threshold.  Zacchaeus,  with  all  his  riches,  was  a 
very  lonely  man.  He  was  a  well-hated  and  a  uni- 
versally-avoided man.  And  thus  it  was  that  our 
Lord's  conduct  that  day  towards  him  completely 
overcame  Zacchaeus.  He  could  not  believe  his  own 
eyes  and  ears.  That  this  great  Prophet,  whose  face 
he  had  been  so  breathless  to  see,  should  actually 
stop  and  call  his  name,  and  invite  Himself  to  his 
house,  and  that  He  should  actually  be  walking  with 
him  back  to  his  house !  Zacchaeus  was  well-nigh 
beside  himself  with  amazement  and  with  delight. 
That  halt  under  the  sycamore  tree,  that  summons 
of  our  Lord,  that  walk  back  together  through  the 
astonished  and  angry  streets,  and  then  the  supper 
and  the  conversation  over  it  and  after  it — all  that 
entered  into  and  at  last  completed  Zacchaeus'*s 
salvation.  Are  you  a  minister,  or  an  elder,  or  a 
missionary,  or  a  district  visitor  ?  Then,  sometimes, 
invite  yourself  to  the  hospitality  of  the  poor,  and 
the  outcast,  and  the  sunken,  and  the  forlorn. 
Knock  civilly  at  their  door.  Ask  the  favour  of  a 
chair  and  a  cup  of  cold  water.  Join  them  in  their 
last  crust.  And  see  if  salvation  does  not  from  that 
day  begin  to  come  to  that  house  also. 

I  cannot  get  it  out  of  my  mind  the  deep  share 
that  Matthew  the  publican  must  have  had  in  the 
conversion  of  Zacchaeus.  You  remember  all  about 
Matthew.  How  he  was  sitting  in  his  toll-booth 
one   day  when  Jesus   came  up  to  him  and  said : 


2ACCHii:US  75 

"Follow  me."  And  how  Matthew  left  all  and  followed 
Him.  And  how  Matthew  made  Him  a  great  feast, 
and  how  the  scribes  and  Pharisees  found  fault,  and 
said  to  the  disciples,  Why  do  ye  eat  and  drink  with 
publicans  and  sinners.?  And  especially,  you  can 
never  forget  our  Lord's  golden  answer :  "  They  that 
are  whole  need  not  a  physician,  but  they  that  are 
sick."  Well,  do  you  not  think  that  Matthew  must 
have  had  an  intense  interest  in  Zacchaeus  that  night  ? 
Even  if  the  eleven  supped  and  lodged  elsewhere  in 
the  city  that  night,  our  Lord  would  be  sure  to  take 
Matthew  with  Him  in  order  to  encourage  and  to 
advise  Zacchaeus.  When  two  members  of  any  craft 
come  together  you  know  how  they  draw  to  one 
another  and  forget  the  presence  of  all  the  rest, 
there  is  such  a  freemasonry  and  brotherhood  be- 
tween them.  They  have  so  many  stories  to  tell, 
experiences  to  compare,  confessions  to  make,  and 
confidences  to  share,  that  those  who  are  not  of  the 
same  occupation  know  nothing  about.  It  is  now 
going  on  to  three  years  that  Matthew  has  been 
a  disciple,  but  it  is  like  yesterday  to  him  to  look 
back  to  his  receipt  of  custom.  And  when  Jesus 
suddenly  stopped  under  the  sycamore  tree  that  day 
and  said,  Zacchaeus,  come  down,  and  when  Zacchaeus 
dropped  that  moment  at  our  Lord's  feet,  no  one's 
heart  in  all  the  crowd  went  out  to  the  trembling  little 
tax-gatherer  like  Matthew's  heart.  And  all  that 
night  the  two  publicans  had  scarcely  broken  ground 
on  all  they  had  to  tell  one  another.  '  If  He  calls  you 
to  leave  all  and  follow  Him,  you  must  do  it  at  once. 
You  will  never  repent  it.     You  have  no  idea  of 


76  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

Him.  What  a  man  He  is,  and  what  a  master ;  and, 
how  it  is  all  to  end,  God  only  knows.  But  if  He 
invites  you  to  join  us,  I  beseech  you  not  to  hesitate 
for  one  moment.'  '  Tell  me  all  about  yourself,'  said 
Zacchaeus.  '  What  did  He  say  to  you  ?  And  how 
did  you  manage  to  cut  off,  and  leave  for  ever  behind 
you,  the  work  and  the  wealth  of  your  whole  life  so  soon 
and  so  completely  ? '  And  Matthew  told  Zacchaeus 
all  we  know,  and  far  more  that  we  need  not  listen 
to,  for  we  would  not  understand  it.  Till,  what 
Zacchaeus  stood  forth  and  said  next  morning  before 
our  Lord,  and  before  all  Jericho,  was  fully  as  much 
at  Matthew's  instance  and  dictation  as  at  Zacchaeus's 
own  repentance  and  resolution.  'Behold,  Lord,  I 
have  made  up  my  mind  overnight,  and  I  wish  you 
and  all  men  to  know  it — the  half  of  my  goods  I 
give  to  the  poor ;  and  if  I  have  taken  anything 
from  any  man  by  false  accusation,  I  restore  him 
fourfold.'  Brave  little  gentleman  !  By  that  noble 
speech  of  thine  thou  hast  added  more  than  many 
cubits  to  thy  stature !  Thy  bodily  presence,  say 
they,  is  weak,  and  thy  height  contemptible ;  but  all 
thine  after  life  will  be  weighty  and  powerful ! 

"  It  is  a  determined  rule  in  divinity,"  says  a  great 
divine,  "  that  our  sins  can  never  be  pardoned  till  we 
have  restored  that  which  we  unjustly  took  away, 
or  which  we  wrongfully  detain.  And  this  doctrine, 
besides  its  evident  and  apparent  reasonableness,  rs 
derived  from  the  express  words  of  Scripture,  which 
reckons  restitution  to  be  a  part  of  repentance,  and 
necessary  to  the  remission  of  sins.  For  these  are 
the  determined  words  of  Scripture — If  the  wicked 


ZACCH.'EUS  T7 

restore  the  pledge,  and  give  again  that  he  hath 
robbed,  and  walk  in  the  statutes  of  life,  without 
committing  inquity,  he  shall  surely  live ;  he  shall 
not  die.  None  of  his  sins  that  he  hath  committed 
shall  be  mentioned  unto  him ;  he  hath  done  that 
which  is  lawful  and  right,  he  shall  surely  live." 


78  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 


LXXIX 
LAZARUS 

lAZARUS  of  Bethany  comes  as  near  to 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  both  in  his  charac- 
ter, and  in  his  services,  and  in  his 
unparalleled  experiences,  as  mortal 
man  can  ever  come.  Lazarus's  name 
is  never  to  be  read  in  the  New  Testament  till  the 
appointed  time  comes  when  he  is  to  fall  sick,  and  to 
die,  and  to  be  raised  from  the  dead,  for  the  glory  of 
God.  Nor  is  his  voice  ever  heard.  Lazarus  loved 
silence.  He  sought  obscurity.  He  liked  to  be  over- 
looked. He  revelled  in  neglect.  You  could  have 
taken  any  liberty  you  pleased  with  Lazarus  with 
the  most  perfect  impunity.  Our  Lord  and  His 
twelve  disciples  often  found  where  to  lay  their  head 
in  Martha'^s  house,  as  it  was  called.  But  where 
Lazarus  laid  his  head  at  such  times  no  one  ever  asked. 
The  very  evangelists  pass  over  Lazarus  as  if  he  were 
a  worm  and  no  man.  They  do  not  give  him  the 
place  of  a  man  in  his  own  house.  But  Lazarus  never 
takes  oifence  at  that.  '  He  is  a  sheep,'  said  the  men  and 
the  women  of  Bethany.  And  so  he  was.  For,  when 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  and  His  twelve  disciples  came  to 
Martha's  house,  Lazarus  hewed  wood,  fetched  water, 


LAZARUS  79 

and  washed  the  feet  of  the  whole  discipleship ;  and 
then,  when  they  were  all  asleep, '  though  he  was  the 
staff  and  sustentation  of  the  family,'  he  supped  out 
of  sight  on  the  fragments  that  remained.  All 
Bethany  was  quite  right,  Lazarus  was  a  perfect 
sheep.  They  laughed  him  to  scorn,  they  shot  out 
the  lip  at  him,  and  he  never  saw  it.  At  any  rate,  he 
never  returned  it.  Let  Martha  sweat  and  scold; 
let  Mary  sit  still  and  listen ;  and  let  Lazarus  only 
be  of  some  use  to  them,  that  he  would  never  believe 
he  was,  and  that  was  Lazarus's  meat  and  drink.  So 
much  so,  that  the  world  would  never  have  heard  so 
much  as  Lazarus's  name  unless  the  glory  of  God 
had  been  bound  up  with  Lazarus's  sickness,  and 
death,  and  resurrection. 

Our  Lord  had  this  happiness,  that  He  loved  all 
men  whether  they  loved  Him  or  no.  But  there 
were  some  men  that  He  loved  with  a  quite  special 
and  peculiar  love.  And  Lazarus  was  one  of  the 
most  eminent  of  those  men.  But,  even  in  our  Lord's 
love  to  His  friend,  Lazarus  is  pushed  back  almost  out 
of  sight.  Martha  and  Mary  always  come  in  before 
their  brother  in  our  Lord's  love,  as  in'everything  else. 
This  evangelist,  that  bare  record  according  as  he 
saw,  had  seen  his  Master's  love  to  Martha  and  Mary 
many  a  time ;  but  it  was  only  now  and  then  that  he 
had  the  opportunity  of  seeing  either  Lazarus's  love 
to  his  Lord,  or  his  Lord's  love  to  Lazarus.  Lazarus 
loved  his  Lord  far  more  than  they  all.  But  his  love 
had  this  defect  about  it  that  it  was  a  silent  love.  It 
was  what  we  call  a  worshipping  love.  It  was  a 
wholly  hidden  love.     Only,  Lazarus's  love  could  not 


80  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

elude  His  eyes  Who  knows  what  is  in  man  without 
man  testifying  what  is  in  him.  And  He  so  loved 
I^zarus  back  again,  and  so  expected  all  His  disciples 
to  love  Lazarus  also,  that  He  was  wont  to  call 
Lazarus  their  universal  friend.  "  Our  friend  Lazarus 
sleepeth,"  He  said.  For  Lazarus  by  that  time,  for 
the  glory  of  God,  and  for  the  glory  of  the  Son  of 
God,  had  fallen  into  a  fatal  sickness.  And  Martha 
had  despatched  a  swift  messenger  to  Bethabara 
beyond  Jordan  to  summon  Him  and  to  say.  Lord, 
he  whom  Thou  lovest  is  sick.  'Trouble  not  the 
Master,'  Lazarus  had  said  to  his  sister  in  his  sick- 
ness. '  The  Jews  of  late  sought  to  stone  Him,  and 
wouldest  thou  bring  Him  hither  again?'  And 
with  a  great  shame  and  a  great  pain  at  himself  for  so 
troubling  his  sister  and  his  Master,  and  with  a  great 
hunger  in  his  heart  for  his  Father's  house  in  heaven, 
Lazarus  turned  his  face  to  the  wall  and  fell  asleep. 

Lazarus  is  altogether  left  out  by  us  as  we  read 
this  heavenly  chapter.  We  leave  out  Lazarus  in 
glory  even  more  completely  than  he  was  left  out  by 
all  men  in  this  life.  We  leave  out  of  this  chapter 
heaven  itself  also  as  much  as  if  we  were  all  Sadducees. 
And  not  till  we  have  our  eyes  opened  to  the  ascended 
Lazarus,  and  to  his  throne  in  glory,  will  we  ever 
read  this  magnificent  chapter  aright,  or  at  all  aright 
understand  why  in  all  the  world  Jesus  should  groan 
and  weep  all  the  way  to  where  Lazarus's  dead  body 
lay  and  decayed  in  the  grave.  Our  Lord  did  not 
leave  Lazarus  out.  No,  nor  his  glory  either.  Our 
Lord  knew  what  He  was  on  His  way  to  do,  and  He 
took  to  heart  what  He  was  on  His  way  to  do,  and  it 


LAZARUS     .  81 

repented  Him  to  a  groaning  that  could  not  be 
uttered,  to  work  His  last  miracle  for  the  awakening 
of  Jerusalem  at  such  a  cost  to  Lazarus.  He  knew 
all  the  time  how  it  would  all  end.  He  knew  what 
Caiaphas  would  say.  And  He  knew  what  Judas 
and  Pilate  and  Herod  and  the  people  would  do. 
And  He  groaned  in  His  spirit  because  He  so  clearly 
foresaw  that  His  friend  Lazarus,  like  Himself,  was 
to  be  such  a  savour  of  death  in  them  that  perish, 
and  at  such  a  price  to  Lazarus. 

So  o'er  the  bed  where  Lazarus  slept. 
He  to  His  Father  groan'd  and  wept  : 
^Vhat  saw  He  moumful  in  that  grave. 
Knowing  Himself  so  strong  to  save  ? 

The  deaf  may  hear  the  Saviour's  voice. 
The  fetter'd  tongue  its  chain  may  break  : 
But  the  deaf  heart,  the  dumb  by  choice. 
The  laggard  soul  that  will  not  wake, 
The  guilt  that  scorns  to  be  forgiven  : — 
These  baffle  e'en  the  spells  of  Heaven : 
In  thought  of  these.  His  brows  benign, 
Not  even  in  healing  cloudless  shine. 

Tesus  wept.  Yes  :  and  if  you  saw  a  friend  of  yours 
in  glory,  and  then  saw  also  that  he  was  to  be  sum- 
moned to  lay  aside  his  glory  and  to  return  to  be 
a  savour  of  death  to  so  many  of  your  fellow- 
citizens,  you  could  not  but  weep  also.  Even  if  you 
knew  that  it  was  the  will  of  God,  and  for  the 
glory  of  the  Son  of  God,  your  friend  was  coming, 
you  could  not  but  weep.  And  our  Lord  wept 
because  Lazarus,  who  had  been  but  four  days  in 
glory,  was  to  be  summoned  to  lay  aside  his  glory 


82  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

and  to  return  to  this  world  of  sin  and  death,  and 
that  on  such  an  errand;  an  errand,  as  it  would 
issue,  of  exasperation  and  final  hardness  of  heart 
to  his  enemies.  Chrysologus,  the  Chrysostom  of 
Ravenna,  has  it :  "  When  our  Lord  was  told  of 
Lazarus's  death  He  was  glad ;  but  when  He  came 
to  raise  him  to  life,  He  wept.  For,  though  His 
disciples  gained  by  it,  and  though  Martha  and 
Mary  gained  by  it,  yet  Lazarus  himself  lost  by  it, 
by  being  re-imprisoned,  re-committed,  and  re-sub- 
mitted to  the  manifold  incommodities  of  this  life." 

"  This  last  and  greatest  of  His  miracles  was  to 
raise  our  Lord  much  estimation,"  says  the  dis- 
tinguished John  Donne,  "but  (for  they  always 
accompany  one  another)  it  was  to  raise  both  Him 
and  Lazarus  much  envy  also."  And  I  will  always 
believe  that  the  sight  of  Lazarus's  share  in  this 
terrible  tragedy  mingled  with  the  sight  of  His  own 
share.  Dante  wept  when  he  saw  that  he  had  to 
return  to  envious  Florence  from  the  charity  of 
Paradise,  even  though  it  was  to  compose  The  Com- 
media  for  God  and  for  the  world.  And  Teresa  has 
it  that  Lazarus  entreated  his  Master  not  to  sum- 
mon him  back  to  this  life  for  any  cause  whatsoever. 
But  it  was  to  be  to  Lazarus  as  it  was  to  be  to 
his  Master,  and  that  is  enough.  "  Now  is  my  soul 
troubled  :  and  wha^  shall  I  say  ?  Father,  save  me 
from  this  hour ;  but  for  this  cause  came  I  unto  this 
hour.     Father,  glorify  Thy  name." 

And  thus  it  was  that  scarcely  had  Lazarus  sat 
down  in  his  Father's  house:  he  had  not  got  his 
harp  of  gold  well  into  his  hand :   he  had  not  got 


LAZARUS  8S 

the  Hallelujah  that  they  were  preparing  against 
the  Ascension  of  their  Lord  well  into  his  mouth, 
when  the  angel  Gabriel  came  up  to  where  he  sat, 
all  rapture  through  and  through,  and  said  to 
him :  '  Hail !  Lazarus  :  highly  honoured  among  the 
glorified  from  among  men.  Thy  Master  calls  up 
for  thee.  He  has  some  service  for  thee  still  to  do 
for  Him  on  the  earth.'  And  the  sound  of  many 
waters  fell  silent  for  a  season  as  they  saw  one  of  the 
most  shining  of  their  number  rise  up,  and  lay  aside 
his  glory,  and  hang  his  harp  on  the  wall,  and  pass 
out  of  their  sight,  and  descend  to  where  their 
heavenly  Prince  still  tarried  with  His  work  un- 
finished. And  Lazarus's  soul  descended  straightway 
into  that  grave,  where  for  four  days  his  former 
body  had  lain  dead,  and  towards  which  our  Lord 
was  now  on  His  way.  And  the  first  words  that 
Lazarus  heard  were  these,  and  the  voice  that  spake 
was  the  voice  of  his  former  Friend — "  Father,  I  thank 
Thee  that  Thou  hast  heard  me.  And  I  knew  that 
Thou  hearest  me  always.  Lazarus,  come  forth."*' 
And  he  that  was  dead  came  forth  bound  hand  and 
foot  with  grave  clothes;  and  his  face  was  bound 
about  with  a  napkin.  And  Jesus  wept  at  the  con- 
trast between  heaven  and  earth,  and  said,  "  Loose 
him,  and  let  him  go.*"  Just  where  did  Lazarus  go  ? 
Like  himself,  he  no  doubt  hid  himself  till  his  Master 
would  not  eat  till.  Lazarus  was  called.  For  they 
made  our  Lord  a  supper  again  in  those  days,  and 
Martha  served  again,  and  Lazarus  this  time  was 
one  of  them  that  sat  at  the  table  with  Him.  But 
the   chief  priests  consulted   that   they   might   put 


84  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

Lazarus  also  to  death :  because  that  by  reason  of 
him  many  of  the  Jews  went  away  and  believed  on 
Jesus. 

Whether  they  carried  out  their  counsel  and  put 
Lazarus  to  death  the  second  time  we  are  not  told. 
The  evangelist  to  whom  we  owe  Lazarus  had  not 
room  within  his  limits  to  tell  us  any  more  about 
Lazarus.  But  a  post-canonical  author  has  these 
entries  in  his  Arabic  diary,  which  I  will  faithfully 
copy  out  for  your  satisfaction  about  Lazarus.  The 
entries  are  abrupt,  and  unfinished,  and  broken  off, 
and  sometimes  quite  unintelligible,  as  you  will  see. 
'  The  man  had  something  strange  and  unearthly  in 
the  look  of  him."*  '  He  eyed  the  world  like  a  child.' 
'He  was  obedient  as  a  sheep,  and  innocent  as  a 
lamb.'  *  He  let  them  talk.'  *  A  word,  a  gesture, 
a  glance  from  a  child  at  play,  or  in  school,  or  even 
in  its  sleep,  would  startle  him  into  an  agony.'  '  His 
heart  and  brain  moved  there,  his  feet  stay  here.' 
'  Often  his  soul  springs  up  into  his  face.'  '  The 
special  marking  of  the  man  is  prone  submission  to 
the  will  of  God.'  '  He  merely  looked  with  his  large 
eyes  on  me.'  *  He  loves  both  old  and  young  ;  able 
and  weak ;  he  affects  the  very  brutes,  and  birds, 
and  flowers  of  the  field.'  'The  man  is  harmless  as 
a  lamb,  and  only  impatient  at  ignorance  and  sin.' 
You  can  construct  for  yourselves  out  of  these 
authentic  fragments  what  Lazarus's  second  life  was 
as  long  as  the  chief  priests  let  him  alone. 

God's  great  demands  that  He  sometimes  makes 
on  His  great  saints,  is  the  great  lesson  that  Lazarus 
teaches  us.     As,  also,  that  great  lowliness  of  mind, 


LAZARUS  85 

and  great  meekness,  and  great  self-surrender,  is  our 
greatest  saintliness.  And,  accordingly,  that  God 
made  His  greatest  demands  on  His  own  lowly- 
minded  Son,  the  meekest  and  the  most  self-emptied 
of  all  men.  And,  after  Him,  on  Lazarus  the  friend 
of  His  Son.  A  demand  on  Lazarus  that  made  his 
divine  Friend  mourn  and  weep  for  him,  as  he  came 
down  to  earth  to  comply  with  the  demand.  Lazarus 
was  the  most  lamb-like  of  men  in  all  the  New  Testa- 
ment, next  to  the  Lamb  Himself;  and  his  services 
and  his  experiences  were,  if  after  a  long  interval, 
yet  not  at  all  unlike  the  services  and  the  self- 
surrenders  and  the  self-emptyings  of  his  Master. 
For  Lazarus  also  laid  aside  his  glory. 

Now,  God's  work  in  this  world  demands  this  very 
same  meekness,  and  lowly-mind edness,  and  self-empti- 
ness, and  laying  aside  of  our  own  glory,  from  some 
men  among  us  every  day.  And  God's  work  stands 
still  in  our  hands,  and  all  around  us,  j  ust  because  He 
has  no  men  like-minded  with  Jesus  of  Nazareth  and 
Lazarus  of  Bethany.  Who  will  offer  themselves  to 
take  up  the  kenotic  succession  ?  Some  humiliation, 
some  self-emptying,  some  surrender,  as  of  heaven 
itself  in  exchange  for  earth,  may  be  demanded  of 
you  as  your  contribution  to  the  glory  of  God,  and 
to  the  glory  of  the  Son  of  God.  Something  that 
will  make  your  best  friends  groan  and  weep  for  you, 
as  Lazarus's  best  friend  groaned  and  wept  for  him. 
Yes ;  God  may  have  as  ten'i})le  a  service  to  ask  of 
you,  when  you  are  ready  for  it,  as  when  He  asked 
His  own  Son  to  go  down  to  Bethlehem,  and  to 
Nazareth,   and   to   Gethsemane,   and    to   Calvary. 


86  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

Some  self-emptying  and  self-sacrifice  like  that  He 
asked  of  the  glorified  Lazarus  also,  when  He  sent 
him  back  to  Bethany  which  was  so  nigh  unto  Jeru- 
salem. Are  you  able  ?  Are  you  ready  ?  Are  you 
willing  to  be  made  able  and  ready?  Let  your 
answer  be  the  answer  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  and  of 
Lazarus  of  Bethany :  "  Lo,  I  come.  In  the  volume 
of  the  book  it  is  written  of  me,  I  delight  to  do 
Thy  will,  O  my  God ;  yea.  Thy  law  is  within  my 
heart'' 


WOMAN  WITH  THE  ISSUE  OF  BLOOD      87 


LXXX 

THE  WOMAN  WITH  THE  ISSUE 
OF  BLOOD 

UR  Lord  was  on  His  way  to  raise  the 
ruler's  little  daughter  from  the  dead. 
Now,  this  woman  who  overtook  Him 
on  the  way  was  not  actually  dead 
hke  the  ruler's  little  daughter,  but 
she  often  wished  she  was,  for  she  was  worse  than 
dead.  She  had  tried  everything  for  her  deadly 
disease.  There  was  not  a  physician  far  nor  near  that 
she  had  not  consulted  as  to  whether  he  could  cure 
her.  She  had  spent  all  her  living  upon  physicians, 
till,  to-day,  she  is  beside  herself  with  downright 
despair.  And  so  am  I.  I  am  not  dead,  but  I  often 
wish  I  were.  For  I,  too,  am  all  my  life  sick  to 
death.  And  I  have  tried  everything.  Every 
preacher,  every  author,  every  discipline,  every 
medicine  of  the  soul.  And  I  am  worse  to-night 
than  ever  I  was.  I  am  in  a  strait  betwixt  two. 
I  love  my  work  more  than  ever.  I  love  my  family 
more  than  ever.  No  man  ever  loved  his  family 
more  than  Martin  Luther  did,  but  all  the  time  he 
told  his  hearers  who  had  head  enough  and  heart 
enough  to  understand  him,  that  he  had  no  real  joy 


88  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

in  his  children  because  of  his  sin.     And  I,  for  one, 
am  exactly  like  Luther  in  that. 

But  to  return  to  the  text.  "And  a  certain 
woman,  which  had  an  issue  of  blood  twelve  years, 
and  had  suffered  many  things  of  many  physicians, 
and  had  spent  all  that  she  had,  and  was  nothing 
bettered  but  rather  worse  —  when  she  heard  of 
Jesus,  came  in  the  press  behind,  and  touched  the 
hem  of  His  garment.  For  she  said  within  herself. 
If  I  may  but  touch  His  clothes  I  shall  be  whole. 
And  straightway  the  fountain  of  her  blood  was 
dried  up,  and  she  felt  in  her  body  that  she  was 
healed  of  her  plague."  Well,  blood  is  blood ;  and 
blood  is  bad  enough ;  but  blood  at  its  worst  is  not 
sin.  Sin  is  Sin.  Sin  has  no  fellow.  Sin  has  no  second, 
unless  it  is  death  and  hell.  Sin  tries  Christ  Himself 
to  His  utmost,  as  this  woman's  bloody  issue  tried 
and  found  wanting  all  the  best  physicians  in  all  the 
cities  round  about.  Christ  could  cure  a  twelve  year 
old  issue  of  blood  incidentally,  and  just  by  the  way, 
as  we  say  ;  ere  ever  He  was  aware  He  had  healed  that 
woman  of  her  blood,  but  not  for  all  her  remaining  life 
of  her  sin.  All  her  days,  you  may  depend  upon  it, 
she  was  nothing  better  of  her  sin,  but  rather  worse. 
None  of  the  three  evangelists  tell  it,  but  it  is  as  true 
as  if  they  had  all  told  it  in  the  same  words.  She 
followed  Him  about  with  her  sin  wherever  He  went. 
She  went  up  to  Jerusalem  after  Him  with  her  sin. 
She  was  one  of  the  women  who  were  beholding 
afar  off  when  He  died  on  the  tree  for  her  sin.  She 
often  went  out  all  her  days  to  the  Garden  of 
Gethsemane,  and  lay  all  night  on  her  face  because 


WOMAN  WITH  THE  ISSUE  OF  BLOOD     89 

of  her  sin.  And  sometimes  at  a  passover  season, 
and  such  like,  she  felt  in  herself  as  if  she  was  going 
to  be  healed  this  time ;  but,  before  the  sun  set,  she 
was  worse  with  her  secret  sinfulness  than  ever. 
And,  till  her  innermost  soul  ran  pure  sin  day  and 
night,  and  would  not  be  staunched  of  heaven  or 
earth.  And  all  that  is  our  own  very  exact  case  to  a 
scriptural  parable.  Long  after  we  have  sold  all  to 
win  Christ ;  long  after  He  has  begun  at  times  to 
shed  abroad  all  that  He  has  promised  to  shed 
abroad  in  our  heart;  long  after  that  we  will  still 
be  nothing  better,  but  infinitely  far  worse.  One 
stolen  touch  was  sufficient  for  an  issue  of  blood ;  but 
a  long  and  close  lifetime  of  absolute  clasp  of  Christ 
will  not  heal  us  of  our  sin.  Oh,  the  malice  of 
sin  !  Oh,  the  height,  and  the  depth,  and  the  hold, 
and  the  absolute  incurableness,  of  sin  !  Only,  with 
all  that  we  must  not  despair.  We  must  not  go 
back.  We  must  not  give  over.  Even  if  it  is  incur- 
able, let  us  not  say  so.  It  is ;  but  let  us  not  say  it 
even  within  ourselves.  Let  us  be  like  this  bleeding 
woman.  To-night,  put  out  your  hand  and  touch 
Christ.  Never  mind  the  gaping  crowd  pressing 
behind  and  before  on  Him  and  on  you.  They  are 
nothing  to  you,  and  you  are  nobody  to  them.  Never 
mind  what  they  do,  or  do  not  do.  They  are  not 
bleeding  to  death  like  you,  and  they  are  no  rule  to 
you.  They  did  not  come  up  here  to-night  on  your 
errand.  You  are  as  good  as  dead,  and  this  may  be 
your  last  chance  of  Christ.  Make  a  grasp  at  Him. 
Make  a  great  grasp,  however  unceremonious  and 
desperate,  at  the  hem  of  His  garment.      Actually 


90  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

stretch  out  your  hand  where  you  now  sit,  and  the 
stretch  of  your  hand  will  sacramentally  help  your 
heart.  Never  mind  the  people  in  the  same  seat 
staring  at  you,  and  thinking  you  are  mad.  So  you 
are,  and  you  need  not  sit  and  look  as  if  you  were 
not.  Never  mind  that  you  have  not  all  your  days 
till  to-night  so  much  as  once  touched  Christ  by 
faith.  This  woman  had  suffered  enough  to  drive 
her  beside  herself  for  twelve  years  before  she  ever 
thought  of  the  hem  of  His  garment,  and  she  went 
home  that  night  healed  of  her  plague.  Press 
through,  and  grasp  tight,  and  hold  fast  till  you 
hear  Him  say,  'Somebody  is  detaining  me.'  And 
till  you  go  home  laughing  in  your  guilty  heart  at 
your  new-found  peace  and  strength  and  joy.  What 
a  power  you  have,  O  sinner,  and  what  an  oppor- 
tunity !  "  Somebody  hath  touched  Me ;  for  I  per- 
ceive that  virtue  has  gone  out  of  Me." 

And  then,  if  you  succeed  in  touching  Him  to- 
night, you  must  not  do  that  once  for  all,  and  never 
again.  You  must  touch  Him  every  day;  and  if 
you  will  not  call  me  extravagant,  and  carried  away, 
I  will  say  —Do  the  same  thing  every  hour  and  every 
moment  of  the  week.  One  thing  all  the  week  is 
needful.  And  that  is  to  keep  that  hem  firm  in 
your  hand.  Even  when  you  feel  completely  dis- 
enchanted of  this  scripture  and  this  night  and  this 
house ;  even  when  you  feel  shame  as  you  look  back 
at  your  intensity  to-night ;  even  when  you  feel  that 
this  woman,  and  Christ,  and  this  church,  and  the 
present  preacher  are  all  a  piece  of  the  same  entire 
dream — still  grope  after  His  garment.     Believe  in 


WOMAN  WITH  THE  ISSUE  OF  BLOOD    91 

Him  and  in  His  garment.  Keep  believing  and  keep 
praying  when  no  one  knows.  Lift  up  your  heart  to 
Him  even  in  the  press  of  business,  and  among  the 
cumber  of  the  house,  and  week-day  and  aU.  And 
He  will  let  down  into  your  hand  the  hem  of  His 
High  Priestly  garment,  all  tingling  with  bells,  and 
all  laden  with  pomegranates,  and  all  shining  with 
strength  and  with  beauty.  And  when  again  your 
evil  heart  runs  with  envy,  and  anger,  and  pride, 
and  ill-will,  and  unkindness,  and  all  the  rest  of  the 
bad  blood  of  hell, — all  that  the  more  grasp  you  at 
Him  and  at  His  garment.  It  is  like  the  precious 
ointment  upon  the  head,  that  ran  down  upon  the 
beard,  even  Aaron's  beard,  that  went  down  to  the 
skirts  of  his  garment :  His  grace  and  His  salvation, 
that  is.  Here  love  runs  down,  and  here  joy  in  your 
neighbour's  joy,  and  here  sweetness  of  temper,  and 
here  humility  of  mind,  and  here  goodwill,  and  here 
attraction  to  people,  and  here  brotherly  kindness, 
and  all  the  rest  of  that  holy  oil. 

The  healing  of  His  seamless  dress 

Is  by  our  beds  of  pain  ; 
We  touch  Him  in  life's  throng  and  press. 

And  we  are  whole  again. 

Now,  why  was  it,  did  you  ever  think,  that  when 
our  Lord  healed  so  thoroughly  this  woman's  sick 
body,  He  did  not  in  an  equally  immediate,  and  in 
an  equally  thorough  way,  heal  her  far  more  sick  soul  ? 
Why  did  He  stop  short  at  her  blood  ?  Why  did  He 
not  work  a  far  better  cure  on  her  sin?  Was  it 
because  she  was  not  sick  of  sin  ?   Was  it  because  she 


92  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

had  not  come,  with  all  those  twelve  years,  to  know 
the  plague  of  her  own  heart?  Or  was  it  because 
He  did  not  come  the  first  time  to  this  world  with  a 
full  salvation  ?  Or  was  it,  and  is  it,  because  sin  is 
such  a  mystery  of  iniquity  that  it  takes  not  only 
both  His  first  and  His  second  comings  to  heal  our 
souls  of  sin ;  but  long  time,  and  great  labour,  and 
great  pain,  and  great  faith,  and  great  prayer  on  our 
part  also,  before  even  His  Divine  power  can  perform 
and  pronounce  a  perfect  cure  ?  Yes,  that  is  it.  Be 
sure  that  it  is.  Even  if  this  woman  had  come  on  a 
very  much  better  errand  than  she  did  come;  and 
with  a  far  better  kind  of  faith  and  love ;  even  had 
she  come  as  David  and  Paul  and  Luther  came  all 
their  days;  she  would  only  have  gone  home  to  a 
more  horrible  pit  in  her  own  heart  than  ever,  and 
to  a  more  corrupt  and  abominable  and  burdensome 
body  of  death  than  ever,  and  to  a  loneliness  that 
the  happiest  home  in  Canaan  could  not  have  com- 
forted ;  to  a  lifelong  death  indeed,  of  which  her 
twelve  years'  issue  of  blood  was  but  a  far  off  and 
feeble  emblem.  Did  you  ever  read  Richard  Baxter's 
Reasons  why  the  Rest  that  remains  for  the  people 
of  God  is  never  entered  on  and  enjoyed  here? 
What  a  splendid  debate  that  seraphic  preacher  holds 
with  all  those  saints  of  God  whose  hearts  are  broken 
continually  with  an  unalleviable  pain  and  with  an 
insatiable  hunger  after  holiness.  What  depths,  both 
in  God  and  man,  Baxter  sounds  on  that  great 
subject,  and  what  heights  he  scales!  O  my  brethren, 
be  pleaded  with  to  read  almost  exclusively  the  books 
that  are  pertinent  to  your  sinful  and  immortal  souls 


WOMAN  WITH  THE  ISSUE  OF  BLOOD    93 

— such  as  The  Sainfs  Rest.  Listen  to  the  great  saints 
as  they  come  together  to  tell  and  to  hear  from  one 
another  what  God  has  done  for  their  souls.  And 
O,  as  many  of  you  as  are  torn  to  pieces  every  day 
with  the  torture  of  sin,  as  well  as  covered  with 
inward  shame  at  the  degradation  and  pollution  of 
sin,  keep  yourselves  in  life  by  hope.  You  are  saved 
by  hope.  Keep  every  day  numbering  your  days, 
and  forecasting  that  Great  Day  on  which  Christ 
shall  come  to  you  and  shall  make  you  perfect  as 
He  and  His  Father  are  perfect.  Give  reins  to 
your  imagination  and  think, — all  sin  for  ever  gone ! 
Think  of  that!  All  sin  gone  clean  out  of  your 
sinful  heart  for  ever !  I  cannot  believe  it  possible. 
All  things  are  possible  to  me  but  that.  I,  for  one, 
will  not  be  the  same  man,  if  ever  that  crowning  work 
of  Omnipotence  is  wrought  in  me.  I  will  not  know 
myself,  that  it  is  myself.  Now,  nothing  but  sin 
and  miseiy ;  and  then,  nothing  but  love,  and  holi- 
ness, and  unspeakable  blessedness.  This  horrible 
and  loathsome  incubus,  myself,  for  ever  cast  off,  and 
for  ever  cast  down  into  the  depths  of  hell,  never 
to  come  up  again.  And  I  set  free  from  myself 
for  ever,  and  admitted  to  the  New  Jerusalem  to  walk 
with  Christ  and  with  His  saints,  in  all  the  holiness 
and  all  the  beauty  of  the  Divine  Nature!  "  Comfort 
ye,  comfort  ye  my  people,  saith  your  God.  Speak 
ye  comfortably  to  Jerusalem,  and  cry  to  her  that 
her  warfare  is  accomplished,  that  her  iniquity  is 
pardoned.  What  are  these  which  are  arrayed  in 
white  robes?  and  whence  came  they?  These  are 
they  which  came  out  of  great  tribulation.     And 


94  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

God  shall  wipe  all  tears  from  their  eyes.  And 
there  shall  be  no  more  death,  neither  sorrow,  nor 
crying,  neither  shall  there  be  any  more  pain:  for 
the  former  things  are  passed  away.  And  He  that 
sat  upon  the  throne  said  to  me :  These  things  are 
true  and  faithful." 


MARY  MAGDALENE  05 


LXXXI 
MARY  MAGDALENE 

HERE  is  a  still  unsettled  dispute  among 
New  Testament  scholars  as  to  how 
many  Marys  there  are  in  the  Gospels, 
and  then  as  to  their  identification. 
But  our  dispute  will  not  be  as  to  this 
Mary  or  that,  but  only  as  to  ourselves.  No,  nor 
even  as  to  who  and  what  were  the  seven  devils 
that  at  one  time  had  made  such  a  hell  in  Mary 
Magdalene's  heart.  Our  whole  dispute  and  debate 
shall  be  to  let  in  some  light  from  heaven  on  the 
bottomless  pit  of  our  own  hearts,  so  as  to  scare  out 
of  our  hearts  some  of  the  seven  devils  who  still 
haunt  and  harbour  there. 

Seven  times 
The  letter  that  denotes  the  inward  stain, 
He  on  my  forehead_,  with  the  truthful  point 
Of  his  drawn  sword  inscribed.     And,  'Look/  he  cried, 
When  entered,  that  thou  wash  these  scars  away.' 

We  do  not  know  just  what  Mary  Magdalene's 
seven  scars  were.  But  for  our  learning,  Dante's  own 
seven  scars  are  written  all  over  his  superb  auto- 
biographical book.  And  Dante's  identical  scars 
are  inscribed  again  every  returning  Fourth  Day  in 


96  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

Bishop  Andrewes's  Private  Devotions.  Solomon 
has  the  same  scars  also  :  "  These  six  things  doth  the 
Lord  hate.  Yea,  seven  are  an  abomination  unto 
Him."  And,  again :  "  When  he  speaketh  fair, 
believe  him  not,  for  there  are  seven  abominations  in 
his  heart."  And  John  Bunyan  has  the  very  same 
number  at  the  end  of  his  Grace  Abounding :  "  I  find 
to  this  day  these  seven  abominations  in  my  heart." 
And  then  Bunyan  is  bold  enough,  and  humble- 
minded  enough,  to  actually  name  his  scars  for  the 
comfort  and  encouragement  of  his  spiritual  children. 
Now,  what  are  your  seven  scars  ?  What  are  your 
seven  abominations  in  your  heart  ?  What  are  the 
six  things,  yea  seven,  in  your  heart  that  the  Lord 
hates .?  It  is  almost  our  whole  salvation  to  ask  and 
to  answer  that  question.  Because  it  is  a  law  of 
devils ;  it  is  their  diabolical  nature,  and  it  is  a  first 
principle  of  their  existence  and  indwelling  and  pos- 
session of  a  man,  that  they  never  make  their  presence 
known  in  any  man  till  he  begins  to  name  them  and 
curse  them  and  cast  them  out.  He  does  not  at  all 
feel  their  full  power,  and  the  whole  pain,  and  shame, 
and  distress,  and  disgust  of  their  presence  till  he  is 
almost  delivered  from  them.  They  rage  and  roar 
and  tear  and  gnash  our  hearts  to  pieces  when  they 
begin  to  see  that  their  time  in  us  is  to  be  short. 
But,  till  then,  we  are  absolutely  insensible  to  their 
very  existence,  either  outside  of  us  or  inside.  It 
was  an  old  aphorism  of  the  deep  old  divines,  and 
they  took  it,  if  I  mistake  not,  out  of  the  deep  old 
stoics :  "  All  vices  are  in  all  men ;  but  all  vices  are 
not  all  extant  in  all  men."     As  much  as  to  say : 


MARY  MAGDALENE  9t 

'  All  the  seven  devils  are  in  every  man's  heart,  but 
they  do  not  all  rage  and  rend  equally  in  every 
man's  heart :  no,  nor  in  the  same  man^s  heart  at  all 
times.  The  very  devils  have  their  times  and  their 
seasons  like  everything  else."*  Now,  though  Mary 
Magdalene  is  my  text,  it  is  of  little  real  interest  or 
importance  to  me  who  and  what  her  seven  devils 
were,  unless  in  so  far  as  that  would  cast  some  light 
in  upon  my  own  possession ;  yours  and  mine.  But, 
on  the  other  hand,  if  I  have  come  by  any  means  to 
know  something  of  the  terrible  plague  of  my  own 
heart,  then,  in  that  measure,  I  am  a  real  authority 
as  to  the  Marys  of  the  four  Gospels ;  and  especially 
as  to  Mary  Magdalene.  To  have  grappled  long, 
even  with  one  inward  devil,  and  to  have  had  him  at 
my  throat  day  and  night  for  years,  and  I  at  his — 
that  is  true  New  Testament  scholarship.  That 
throws  a  flood  of  light  on  all  the  Marys  who 
followed  our  Lord  about,  and  that  makes  Mary 
Magdalene  a  minister's  own  and  peculiar  field,  and 
his  specialised  department  of  pulpit  work.  And 
the  same  inward  experience  is  making  not  a  few  of 
my  hearers  far  better  genealogists,  and  ^harmonists, 
and  exegetes,  and  demonologists,  than  all  their 
teachers. 

Pride,  envy,  anger,  intemperance,  lasciviousness, 
covetousness,  spiritual  sloth — these  were  Dante's 
seven  scars  on  his  sanctified  forehead.  I  had  a 
great  dispute  on  the  subject  of  Dante's  scars  the 
other  day  with  one  of  the  best  Dante  scholars  in 
this  country.  He  contended  against  me  with  great 
learning  and  great  eloquence  that  Dante's  besetting 


98  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

sin  was  pride — a  towering,  satanic,  scornful  pride, 
to  the  contemptuous  and  complete  exclusion  of  all 
possible  envy.  He  had  Dante  on  his  side  in  one 
passage  at  any  rate.  I  could  not  deny  that.  And 
I  confess  it  seemed  to  me  that  Dante  and  he 
together  had  established  the  doctrine  that  any 
envy  at  all  is  absolutely,  and  in  the  nature  of  things, 
quite  incompatible  with  such  a  lofty  pride  as  that 
was  which  wholly  possessed  Dante'*s  heart.  Till, 
staggered,  if  not  truly  convinced,  I  gave  in  :  so 
browbeaten  was  I  between  two  such  antagonists. 
But  when  I  came  to  myself;  when  I  left  all  books, 
the  very  best,  about  pride  and  envy,  and  when  I 
was  led  again  of  God's  Holy  Spirit  into  the  pande- 
monium that  is  in  my  own  heart,  I  recovered 
courage,  till,  to-night,  I  have  my  harness  on  again 
to  fight  the  battle  of  divine  truth  against  any  man, 
and  all  men,  and  even  Dante  himself.  And  the 
di\dne  truth  to  me  in  this  matter  is  this:  That 
in  my  heart,  if  not  in  Dante's,  both  pride  and  envy 
have  their  full  scope  together ;  and  that  they  never, 
in  the  very  least,  either  exclude,  or  drink  up,  or 
narrow  down,  the  dreadful  dominion  of  one  another. 
Now,  what  do  you  say  to  that?  How  is  it  with 
your  heart  ?  *  I  have  no  books,'  said  Jacob 
Behmen.  'I  have  neither  Aristotle,  nor  Dante, 
nor  Butler,  nor  Brea,  nor  Shepard,  nor  Edwards ; 
I  have  only  my  own  heart.'  You  have  none  of 
these  books  either,  but  you  surely  have  your  own 
heart.  Who,  then,  for  the  love  of  the  truth,  will 
so  read  his  own  heart  as  to  take  sides  with  me  ? 
Come  away.      Take  courage.      Speak  out.      Speak 


MARY  MAGDALENE  99 

boldly  out.  You  must  surely  know  what  pride  is, 
and  you  must  all  know,  still  better  perhaps,  what 
envy  is,  and  at  whose  payments  and  praises  and 
successes  and  positions  your  heart  cramps  and 
strangles  and  excruciates  itself.  Do  you  not  both 
know  and  confess  all  these  things  before  yourself 
and  before  God  every  day  ?  ,  Do  you  not  ?  O 
stone-dead  soul !  O  sport  and  prey  of  Satan  !  O 
maker  of  God  a  liar,  and  the  truth  is  not  in  you  ! 
I  would  not  have  your  devil-possessed  heart,  and 
your  conscience  seared  with  a  redhot  iron,  for  the 
whole  world.  I  would  rather  be  myself  yet,  and 
myself  at  my  worst,  a  thousand  times,  than  be  you 
at  your  best.  Whether  you  are  true  enough  and 
bold  enough  to  be  on  my  side  or  no,  I  shall  not  be 
so  easily  silenced  in  my  next  debate  about  these 
two  devils.  For  a  man  is  more  to  himself,  on  such 
inward  matters,  than  the  whole  Commedia  and  the 
whole  Ethics  to  boot,  with  all  their  splendid  trea- 
sures of  truth,  and  power,  and  experience,  and 
eloquence.  As  I  was  saying,  I  have  not  the  least 
notion  as  to  who  or  what  Mary  Magdalene's  seven 
devils  were,  and  much  less  do  I  know  how  they 
could  possibly  be  all  cast  out  of  her  heart  in  this 
life.  I  do  not  know  much,  as  you  will  see,  about 
Mary  Magdalene,  but  I  would  not  give  up  the  little 
knowledge  I  have  of  myself,  no,  not  for  the  whole 
world.  For  what  would  it  profit  me  if  I  gained  the 
whole  world  of  knowledge  and  everything  else,  and 
lost  my  fast-passing  opportunity  of  having  all  this 
pandemonium  that  is  within  me  for  ever  cast  out 
of  me  ? 


100  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

I  will  confess  it  again :  How  the  whole  seven 
could  possibly  be  cast  out  of  her  heart  in  this  pre- 
sent life,  I,  for  one,  cannot  imagine ;  and  I  do  not 
believe  it.  Complete,  or  all  but  complete,  deliver- 
ance from  two,  say,  of  the  seven  I  could  easily 
believe,  but  the  remaining  five  are  quite  beyond 
me.  Two  of  the  seven  scars  are  on  the  surface. 
They  are  but  skin-deep.  Two  of  Dante's  seven 
devils  have  their  holes  in  the  sand;  in  the  soft 
earth  and  on  the  exposed  outside  of  our  hearts. 
Properly  speaking,  they  are  rather  mole-heaps  and 
rabbit-burrows  than  the  dens  of  devils.  Properly 
speaking,  they  are  not  devils  at  all.  Till  any  man 
who  is  in  any  earnest  at  all  can  easily  dig  them  out 
with  a  spade,  and  wring  their  necks,  and  nail  their 
dead  carcases  up  on  the  chm'ch  door  and  be  for  ever 
done  with  them.  But  if  you  do  that  with  those  two 
it  will  only  the  more  terrify  and  exasperate  the 
other  five.  When  the  outposts  of  hell  are  stormed 
and  taken  and  put  to  the  sword,  that  only  drives 
the  real  hell,  with  its  true  and  proper  devils,  deeper 
down  into  their  bottomless  entrenchments.  There 
are  some  wild  beasts  so  devilish  in  their  bite ;  they 
make  their  cruel  teeth  so  to  meet  and  lock  fast  in  a 
man  s  flesh  ;  that  the  piece  has  to  be  cut  out  if  he  is 
to  be  saved  from  their  deadly  hold.  And  the  fangs 
of  these  five  genuine  devils  must  be  broken  to  pieces 
in  their  heads  with  the  hammer  of  God,  and  the  flesh 
and  bone  into  which  they  have  locked  their  cursed 
teeth  must  be  cut  out  and  sacrificed  before  the  soul 
is  set  free.  And  in  this  case  the  surgeon  with  his 
hammer  and  his  knife  is  Death,  and  the  full  science 


MARY  MAGDALENE  101 

and  success  of  his  operations  will  not  be  all  seen  till 
the  Resurrection  morning.  "  Like  as  a  lion  that  is 
greedy  of  his  prey,  and  as  it  were  a  young  lion 
lurking  in  secret  places.  Arise,  O  Lord  !  disappoint 
him,  cast  him  |down.  As  for  me,  I  will  behold 
Thy  face  in  righteousness  ;  I  shall  be  satisfied,  when 
I  awake,  with  Thy  likeness."  It  is  better  to  enter 
into  heaven  with  seven  devils  excavated  out  of  our 
hearts  as  with  a  knife,  than  to  have  them  gnawing 
in  our  hearts  to  all  eternity. 

Since  ever  there  were  women's  hearts  in  this 
world,  were  there  ever  two  women's  hearts  with 
such  emotions  in  them  as  when  Mary  the  mother  of 
Jesus,  and  Mary  Magdalene,  stood  together  beside 
His  Cross  ?  Did  you  ever  try  to  put  yourself  into 
His  mother's  heart  that  day,  or  into  ]\fary  Magda- 
lene's heart  ?  They  stood  and  wept  as  never  another 
two  women  have  wept  since  women  wept  in  this 
world,  till  John  at  Jesus'  command  took  His  mother 
away  from  Calvary  and  led  her  into  the  city.  But 
Mary  Magdalene  still  stood  by  the  Cross.  He  dis- 
missed His  mother,  but  He  kept  Mary ;  she  would 
not  be  dismissed,  and  she  stood  near  to  His  crucified 
feet.  All  His  disciples  had  forsaken  Him  and  fled. 
And  thus  it  was  that  there  was  no  eye-witness  left 
to  tell  us  how  Mary  Magdalene  stood  close  up  to 
the  Cross  weeping,  and  how  she  did  wash  His  feet 
with  her  tears,  and  did  wipe  them  with  the  hairs 
of  her  head.  And  then,  when  He  said,  I  thirst, 
how  she  took  the  sponge  out  of  the  soldier's  hand 
and  put  it  up  to  His  lips.  When  He  bowed  His 
head  she  saw  Him  do  it,  and  she  heard  Him  say,  It 


102  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

is  finished  !  It  was  not  a  place  for  a  woman.  But 
Mary  Magdalene  was  not  a  woman ;  she  was  an 
angel.  She  was  the  angel  who  strengthened  Him. 
She  was  the  whole  Church  of  God  and  ransomed 
bride  of  Christ  at  that  moment  in  herself:  she  and 
her  twin-brother,  the  thief  on  the  Cross.  How  the 
next  three  days  and  three  nights  passed  with  Mary 
Magdalene  I  cannot  account  for  her  to  you.  But 
on  the  first  day  of  the  new  week  cometh  Mary 
Magdalene  early,  when  it  was  yet  dark,  unto  the 
sepulchre.  And  Jesus  saith  unto  her,  Mary  !  She 
turned  herself,  and  saith  unto  Him,  Rabboni !  Jesus 
saith  to  her,  'Touch  me  not  with  thy  tears,  nor 
with  the  hairs  of  thy  head,  nor  with  thy  ointment.* 
And,  had  He  not  said  that,  she  would  have  been 
holding  His  feet  there  to  this  day.  And  now  that 
He  has  ascended  to  His  Father"*s  house,  He  is  saying 
to  His  saints  and  to  His  angels  to  this  very  day  the 
very  same  words  that  He  said  in  Simon''s  house — 
"  This  woman  since  I  came  in  hath  not  ceased  to  kiss 
my  feet." 

But  the  supreme  lesson  to  me  out  of  all  Mary 
Magdalene's  marvellous  history  is  just  the  text: 
"He  appeared  first  to  Mary  Magdalene,  out  of 
whom  He  had  cast  seven  devils.'"  As  much  as  to 
say, — it  was  not  to  Peter,  nor  to  James,  nor  to 
John,  that  He  gave  that  signal  favour  and  un- 
paralleled honour.  It  was  not  even  to  His  own 
mother.  It  was  to  Mary  Magdalene.  It  was  to 
her  who  loved  Him  best,  and  had  the  best  reason  to 
love  Him  best,  of  all  the  men  and  women  then  living 
in  the  world.     While  this  world  lasts,  and  as  long 


MARY  MAGDALENE  103 

as  there  are  great  sinners  and  great  penitents  to  com- 
fort in  it,  let  Mary  Magdalene  be  often  preached 
upon,  and  let  this  lesson  be  always  taught  out  of 
her,  this  lesson, — that  no  depth  of  sin,  and  no  posses- 
sion of  devils  even,  shall  separate  us  from  the  love 
of  Christ.  That  repentance  and  love  will  outlive 
and  overcome  everything ;  as  also,  that  there  is  no 
honour  too  high,  and  no  communion  too  close,  for 
the  love  of  Christ  on  His  side,  and  for  the  soul's  love 
on  her  side,  between  them  to  enj  oy .  Onlyr  epentdeep 
enough  and  to  tears  enough;  only  love  as  Mary 
Magdalene  loved  Him  who  had  cast  her  seven  devils 
out  of  her  heart ;  and  He  will  appear  to  you  also, 
and  will  call  you  by  your  name.  And  He  will  em- 
ploy you  in  His  service  even  more  and  even  better 
than  He  honoured  and  employed  Mary  Magdalene 
on  the  morning  of  His  Resurrection. 

Mary  Magdalene  !  my  sister,  my  forerunner  into 
heaven  till  I  come,  and  my  representative  there! 
But,  remember,  only  till  I  come.  Cease  not  to  kiss 
His  feet  till  I  come,  but  give  up  thy  place  to  me 
when  I  come.  For  to  whom  little  is  forgiven,  the 
same  loveth  little.  Give  place  then ;  give  place  to 
me  before  His  feet  I 


104  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 


LXXXII 

THE  MOTHER  OF  ZEBEDEE'S  CHILDREN 

HY  does  the  Evangelist  write  the  text 
in  that  round-about  way?  ^Vhy 
does  he  not  write  the  text  in  his  own 
simple  and  straightforward  style  ? 
Why  does  he  not  simply  say :  Salome, 
the  mother  of  James  and  John  ?  I  do  not  know 
for  certain  why  the  Evangelist  writes  in  that  ambi- 
guous and  intentionally  obscure  way,  but  I  will 
tell  you  what  I  think  about  it.  By  the  time  that 
Matthew  sat  down  to  compose  his  Gospel,  James, 
the  eldest  son  of  Zebedee  and  Salome,  had  already 
been  a  long  time  in  heaven  vnih  Christ ;  and  John, 
his  brother,  was  a  high  and  an  honoured  Apostle  in 
the  Church  of  Christ  on  earth.  James  had  long  ago 
drunk  of  Christ's  cup  and  been  baptized  with  Christ's 
baptism.  While  John  was, by  this  time, as  good  as  the 
author  of  the  Fourth  Gospel,  and  the  three  Epistles, 
and  the  Apocalypse.  All  the  same,  nay,  all  the 
more,  John  had  not  forgotten  the  sins  and  the  faults 
and  the  follies  of  his  youth ;  and,  above  all,  he  had 
not  forgotten  that  for  ever  disgrj^ceful  day  when  he 
got  his  mother  to  beg  the  best  throne  for  him  and 
for  his  brother.     Tliat  disgraceful  day  though  now 


MOTHER  OF  ZEBEDEE'S  CHILDREN     105 

so  long  past  was  ever  before  John.  And  thus  it 
was,  as  I  think,  that  Matthew  wrote  in  this  round- 
about way  about  it.  'May  my  right  hand  forget 
its  cunning,'  said  Matthew,  '  before  I  bring  back  a 
single  blush  to  that  great  saint  of  God  !  No  enemy 
of  Christ  and  of  His  Chui'ch  shall  ever  blaspheme 
out  of  my  book  if  I  can  help  it.'  And  thus  it  was 
that  this  Evangelist  took  a  garment,  and  laid  it  on 
his  shoulder,  and  went  backward,  till  he  had  all  but 
completely  covered  up  the  sin  of  Salome  and  James 
and  John.  '  Blessed  Antonomasiast ! '  exclaimed 
John,  when  he  read  this  chapter  of  Matthew  for  the 
first  time.  '  Yes,'  said  John ;  '  all  Scripture  is  indeed 
given  by  inspiration  of  the  Spirit  of  God  :  and  God 
is  love  ! '  And  it  was  so  certainly  with  this  special 
Scripture.  For  Matthew's  heart  of  love  and  honour 
for  John  had  taken  his  inspired  pen  out  of  his  hand 
at  the  opening  of  this  passage  till  this  stroke  of 
sheltering  style  was  struck  out  before  the  writer  knew 
what  he  is  doing.  Dante  is  full  on  every  page  of 
his  of  this  same  exquisite  device.  Dante,  indeed,  is 
the  fullest  of  this  exquisite  device  of  any  of  the 
great  writers,  either  sacred  or  profane.  But  the 
Bible  had  this  exquisite  device,  as  it  had  all  Dante's 
exquisite  devices,  long  before  he  was  born.  And 
still  the  Bible  is  by  far  our  finest  education  in  morals, 
and  in  manners,  and  in  love,  and  in  letters,  as  well 
as  in  our  everlasting  salvation. 

'  Leave  it  to  me,  my  sons,'  said  Salome ;  '  leave  it 
to  me.  Do  not  be  in  any  doubt  about  it.  It  will 
all  come  right.  I  am  not  to  be  His  mother's  sister 
for  nothing,  and  I  have  not  followed  Him  about  all 


106  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

this  time,  and  ministered  to  Him  out  of  my  sub- 
stance, for  nothing.  Blood  is  thicker  than  water,' 
she  said,  'and  you,  my  sons,  will  see  that  it  is  so. 
Leave  it  to  me.  Who  is  Andrew?  And  who  is 
Peter  ?  And  who  is  their  father  ?  And  who  is  their 
mother,  I  would  like  to  know,  that  they  should 
presume  to  be  princes  over  my  sons  ?  It  shall  never 
be !  Leave  it  to  me,  my  sons ;  leave  it  to  me.' 
"  Then  came  to  Him  the  mother  of  Zebedee's  chil- 
dren with  her  sons,  worshipping  Him,  and  desiring 
a  certain  thing  of  Him.  And  He  said  to  her.  What 
wilt  thou  ?  She  saith  unto  Him,  Grant  that  my  two 
sons  may  sit,  the  one  on  Thy  right  hand  and  the 
other  on  the  left,  in  Thy  Kingdom."  Well  done, 
Salome !  Well  done !  As  long  as  this  Gospel  is 
preached  this  splendid  impudence  of  thine  shall  be 
told  of  thee !  '  Let  the  sons  of  all  the  other  mothers 
in  Israel  sit,  or  stand,  or  lie  as  they  like ;  only,  let 
my  two  sons  sit  high  above  them  all,  and  have  their 
feet  on  the  necks  of  all  the  ten.'  Had  Salome's 
presumption  been  less  magnificent,  our  Lord  would 
have  been  very  angry  at  her.  But  the  absolute 
sublimity  of  her  selfishness  completely  overcame 
Him.  He  had  met  with  nothing  like  it.  The 
splendid  humility  of  the  Syrophcenician  woman 
completely  overcame  Him,  and  now  He  is  equally 
overcome  with  the  splendid  shamelessness  of  Salome's 
request.  Her  cold-blooded  cruelty  to  Himself  also 
pierced  His  heart  as  with  a  spear.  This  is  the 
Monday,  and  He  is  to  be  betrayed  on  the  Thursday, 
and  crucified  on  the  Friday.  All  the  same,  Salome 
went  on  plotting  and  counter-plotting  for  a  throne 


MOTHER  OF  ZEBEDEE'S  CHILDREN     107 

for  her  two  sons  that  only  existed  in  her  own  stupid 
and  selfish  heart.  And  it  wels  the  sight  of  all  this  that 
made  our  Lord's  rising  anger  turn  to  an  infinite  pity, 
till  He  said  to  her  two  sons  :  '  Are  ye  able  to  drink 
of  My  cup,  and  to  be  baptized  with  My  baptism  ? ' 
And  what  do  you  think  the  two  insane  men  said  ? 
They  actually  said :  "  We  are  able  ! "  In  such  sin 
had  their  mother  Salome  conceived  them.  In  such 
stupidity  of  mind.  In  such  hopeless  selfishness, 
combined  with  such  hard-hearted  presumptuousness. 
And  then,  that  it  should  be  John  !  That  it  should 
be  the  disciple  who  had  been  chosen  to  such  a 
coming  sanctification  and  to  such  a  coming  service ! 
That  it  should  be  John,  who  had  been  so  loved, 
and  so  trusted,  and  so  leaned  upon,  and  so  looked 
to]!  And  at  this  time  of  day,  that  John  should  be 
so  deep  in  this  miserable  plot.  Our  Lord  often 
spoke  about  a  daily  cross.  Well,  that  was  His  cross 
that  Monday,  and  a  very  bitter  cross  it  was.  More 
bitter  to  His  heart  by  far  than  all  the  thorns  and 
nails  and  spears  of  next  Friday.  What  a  cup  of 
red  wine  that  miserable  mother  and  her  two  sons 
like  her,  made  our  Lord  to  drink  that  day !  '  O 
Salome,'  He  said,  '  and  O  James  and  John  her  sons, 
you  little  know  the  baptism  you  are  all  baptizing 
Me  with.  But  your  own  baptism,  also,  will  soon 
come.     And  mine  is  at  the  door.' 

A  little  imagination,  with  a  little  heart  added  to 
it,  would  have  saved  Salome  and  her  two  sons  from 
making  this  shameful  petition.  Salome  should  have 
said  to  herself  something  like  this.  She  should 
have  said  this,  and  should  have  dwelt  on  it,  till  it 


108  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

made  her  shameful  petition  to  be  impossible.  She 
should  have  said  :  '  But  Andrew,  and  Peter,  and  all 
the  ten,  have  mothers  like  me.  All  their  mothers 
are  just  as  ambitious  for  all  their  sons  as  I  am  for 
mine.  And  thej  will  feel  toward  me  and  toward  my 
sons  just  the  same  suspicion,  and  jealousy,  and  envy, 
and  hatred,  and  ill-will,  that  I  feel  toward  them. 
And  what  would  I  think  of  them  if  they  took  advan- 
tage of  their  friendship  with  Christ,  as  I  am  taking 
advantage  of  my  friendship  with  Him,  in  order  to 
get  Him  to  favour  them  and  their  sons  at  our 
expense  ?  And  what  would  I  think  of  Him  if  He 
was  imposed  upon,  and  prevailed  upon,  to  overlook, 
and  neglect,  and  injure  my  sons,  at  the  shameful 
plot  of  some  of  their  mothers  ? '  Had  Salome  talked 
in  that  way  to  her  own  heart ;  and,  especially,  had 
she  brought  up  her  sons  to  look  at  themselves  and 
at  all  their  fellows  in  that  light;  she  would  then 
have  been  as  wise  a  woman  as  she  now  was  a  fool, 
and  as  good  a  mother  as  she  now  was  a  bad.  Where 
had  Salome  lived  all  her  days  ?  What  kind  of  a 
mother  had  she  herself  had?  In  what  synagogue 
in  all  Israel  had  she  worshipped  God  ?  Who  had 
been  her  teachers  in  the  things  of  God  ?  What  had 
she  been  thinking  about  all  the  time  our  Lord  had 
been  teaching  and  preaching  in  her  hearing,  as  He 
did  every  day,  about  seeing  with  other  people's  eyes, 
and  feeling  with  other  people's  hearts,  and  doing  to 
other  mothers  and  to  their  sons  as  she  would  have 
them  do  to  her  and  to  her  sons  ?  How  could  she 
have  lived  in  this  world,  and  especially  in  the  day 
and  in  the  discipleship  of  Chiist,  and  how  could  she 


MOTHER  OF  ZEBEDEE'S  CHILDREN     109 

have  borne  and  brought  up  her  sons  to  be  His 
disciples,  and  still  be  capable  of  this  disgraceful 
scheme  ?  Had  she  possessed  one  atom  of  experience 
of  the  world,  not  to  say  of  truth  and  wisdom  and 
love,  she  could  never  have  petitioned  for  a  place  of 
such  offence  and  such  danger  for  her  two  sons.  Even 
if  Christ  had  asked  it  of  her,  she  would  have  shrunk 
from  exposing  her  two  sons  to  the  envy  and  the 
anger  and  the  detraction  of  all  the  ten,  and  of  many 
more  besides.  '  Employ  my  sons  in  Thy  service,' 
she  would  have  petitioned ;  '  but  let  it  be  in  some 
secluded  and  obscure  place.  Make  them  Thy  true 
disciples  even  to  death;  but,  I  do  beseech  Thee, 
if  it  be  Thy  will,  hide  them  in  the  secret  of  Thy 
presence  from  the  pride  of  men,  and  keep  them 
secretly  in  Thy  pavilion  from  the  strife  of  tongues.' 
She  would  have  kneeled  and  worshipped  and  so 
spoken  if  she  had  had  a  mother's  eye  and  a  mother's 
heart  in  her  bosom.  But  instead  of  that,  this  cruel 
woman  to  her  own  flesh  and  blood  was  for  exposing 
her  two  sons  to  every  possible  shaft  and  spear  of 
envy,  and  anger,  and  ill-will,  and  injury.  'How 
great  they  will  be,  if  I  can  help  it,'  the  heartless 
creature  talked  to  herself  and  said:  'What  titles 
they  will  wear !  What  power  they  will  exercise ! 
And  how  all  Galilee  will  hear  of  it,  and  how  they 
will  all  envy  Salome  ! '  Till  she  said  :  '  Leave  it  to 
me,  my  sons ;  leave  it  to  me.'  And  James  and  John 
left  it  to  her,  and  they  both  knelt  down  beside  her 
as  she  said  :  '  Lord,  I  have  a  certain  thing  to  ask  of 
Thee.' 

It  was  our  Lord's  continual  way  to  make  Scrip- 


no  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

tures  out  of  His  disciples,  and  to  have  those  Scrip- 
tures written  and  preserved  for  our  edification. 
And  He  made  this  Scripture  for  us  out  of  Salome 
and  James  and  John  and  the  ten;  this  solemn 
Scripture :  "  It  must  needs  be  that  offences  come, 
but  woe  to  that  man  by  whom  the  offence  cometh  !"*' 
Woe  to  Salome  and  to  her  two  sons,  that  is,  for  she 
made  herself  a  great  offence  to  the  ten  that  day. 
She  would  have  been  offence  enough  simply  with  her 
so-near  relationship  to  Christ,  and  with  her  so-gifted 
and  so-privileged  sons.  But  not  content  with  that, 
she  must  needs  take  and  lay  both  her  sons  as  sheer 
rocks  of  offence  right  in  the  way  of  the  headlong 
ten.  Just  because  she  was  His  mother**s  sister; 
just  because  James  and  John  were  His  cousins; 
she  and  they  should  have  kept  in  the  background 
of  the  discipleship,  and  should  never  have  come 
out  of  that  background  but  with  tender  and  slow 
and  softly-taken  steps.  But  it  will  take  all  the 
tremendous  disenchantment  of  the  coming  Thursday 
and  Friday  to  bring  James  and  John  and  the  others 
to  their  sober  senses.  And  oh !  you  who  are  not 
come  to  your  sober  senses  yet,  witli  all  Salome'*s 
shame  all  written  for  that  purpose, — what,  in  the 
name  of  God,  is  to  bring  you  to  yourself?  Oh, 
born  fools  and  blind,  not  to  see  what  stumbling- 
stones  and  what  rocks  of  offence  you  are  to  other 
men,  just  as  they  are  to  you  !  Not  to  see  the 
broken  bones  that  other  men  take  from  you, 
just  as  surely  as  you  take  the  same  from  them. 
Salome  could  not  help  it  that  she  was  His  mother's 
sister.    And  James  and  John  could  not  help  it  that 


MOTHER  OF  ZEBEDEE'S  CHILDREN      111 

they  were  their  mother"'s  sons.  And  you  may  be 
as  blameless  and  as  innocent  as  they  were  in  that, 
and  yet  you  may  be  a  stone  of  stumbling  down  to 
death  and  hell  to  many  men  around  you.  At  every 
talent  that  has  been  committed  to  you;  at  every 
added  talent  that  you  make  for  yourself  and  for  the 
Church  and  for  Christ;  at  every  sweet  word  of  praise 
that  sounds  around  your  honoured  name ;  at  every 
step  you  are  summoned  to  take  up  to  higher  ser- 
vice ;  there  are  men  all  around  you  eyeing  you  with 
an  evil  eye.  It  is  the  same  evil  eye,  with  the  same 
javelin  in  it,  that  Saul  threw  at  David.  It  is  the 
same  evil  eye  with  which  both  Peter  and  Judas 
shot  hatred  that  day  at  James  and  John.  And  all 
the  time,  and  till  the  javelin  sang  past  their  heads 
and  stuck  fast  in  the  wall  just  beyond  them,  the  two 
besotted  brothers  were  in  uttermost  ignorance  of 
what  they  and  their  mother  had  done,  and  what 
they  had  led  the  ten  into  doing,  and  what  shame 
and  pain  they  had  caused  their  clear-eyed  and  pure- 
hearted  Master.  And  even  had  James  and  John 
got  their  two  thrones,  would  they,  do  you  think, 
have  got  one-thousandth  part  of  the  pleasure  out 
of  their  thrones  that  Peter  and  the  nine  would  have 
got  pain?  And  your  own  cup  of  honour,  and 
praise,  and  what  not,  is  not  half  so  sweet  to  you  as 
it  is  bitter  as  blood  to  the  Peters  and  the  Judases 
who  see  it  in  your  hand.  There  is  nothing  but  the 
merest  and  the  sourest  dregs  in  your  cup,  but  they 
who  see  it  at  your  lips  do  not  know  that.  "  It  is 
impossible  but  that  offences  will  come ;  but  woe  unto 
him  through  whom  they  come  ! " 


12  BIBLE  CHARACTEHS 


LXXXIII 
THE  WIDOW  WITH  THE  TWO  MITES 

HE  was  a  widow.  And  she  was  surely 
the  poorest  widow  in  aU  the  city  that 
day.  But  she  had  this — that  she  was 
g  rich  toward  God,  and  that  He  was 
rich  toward  her.  For  she  loved  the 
house  of  God.  She  was  another  Anna.  Only, 
Anna  lodged  in  the  precincts  of  the  temple,  and 
departed  not  from  the  temple  night  and  day, 
whereas  this  poor  widow  somehow  and  somewhere 
had  an  impoverished  house  of  her  own.  "  O  God, 
thou  art  my  God,'"*  she  kept  saying  to  herself  all  the 
Avay  up  from  her  own  impoverished  house  with  the 
two  mites  in  her  hand ;  "  my  soul  shall  be  satisfied  as 
with  marrow  and  fatness ;  and  my  mouth  shall  praise 
Thee  with  joyful  lips,  when  I  remember  Thee  upon 
my  bed,  and  meditate  on  Thee  in  the  night  watches." 
When  one  after  another  of  her  neighbours  and  her 
kindred  railed  on  her  for  going  up  to  the  Court  of 
the  Women  in  her  deep  poverty,  she  answered  them 
not  again.  Only,  she  did  not  turn  back,  nor  did 
she  lose  hold  of  her  two  mites.  "  Two  mites,"  says 
Mark,  "  make  a  farthing."  She  had  no  great  temp- 
tation to  let  her  left  hand  know  what  her  right 


THE  WIDOW  WITH  THE  TWO  MITES     113 

hand  intended  to  do.  And  thus  it  was  that  without 
once  lifting  her  eyes  off  the  temple  steps  she  cast 
her  contribution  into  the  temple-chest,  and  passed 
on  into  the  temple  to  offer  her  morning  prayer,  and 
then  went  down  to  her  own  house.  She  had  seen 
nobody,  she  had  spoken  to  nobody,  and  nobody 
had  seen  or  spoken  to  her.  And  she  does  not  know 
to  this  day  what  we  know.  Nor  will  she  know  till 
that  day  when  everything  shall  be  known  and  made 
manifest.  What  would  she  have  thought  if  she 
had  been  told  Who  had  watched  her  that  day,  and 
what  He  had  said  about  her,  and  that  we  would 
be  reading  about  her  to-night  in  this  far-off  island 
of  the  sea?  As  also  that  her  two  mites  would 
multiply,  all  down  the  ages,  into  millions  upon 
millions  of  gold  and  silver,  the  same  Eyes  still 
watching  the  process  all  the  time  ?  And  what  will 
she  think  and  what  will  she  say  when  all  that  is 
told  from  the  housetop  on  that  day  about  her,  and 
about  her  two  mites,  by  the  Judge  of  all?  And 
still  He  sits  over  against  the  treasury  in  this  temple 
to-night,  and  calls  unto  Him  His  disciples  among 
us,  and  says  to  us,  'Verily  I  say  unto  you  also.' 
And  as  He  sits  and  speaks  to  us,  and  points  us  to 
this  poor  widow,  we  lay  to  heart  from  Him  many 
lessons. 

In  every  department  of  merely  secular  finance 
money  is  just  money.  The  Chancellor  of  Her 
Majesty's  Exchequer  does  not  care  one  straw  what 
our  feelings  toward  him  and  toward  his  office  are  when 
he  sends  us  in  our  income-tax  schedule.  He  does  not 
interrogate  us  as  to  our  political  principles,  or  even 

H 


114  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

as  to  our  loyalty  to  the  thi'one.  Only  pay  your 
taxes  promptly  and  he  will  not  trouble  you  again 
till  next  year.  But  it  was  very  different  from  that 
in  those  communities  where  Paul  was  the  collector 
of  the  contributions  of  the  apostolic  churches. 
"  Brethren,"  he  wrote,  "  we  do  you  to  wit  of  the 
grace  of  God  bestowed  on  the  churches  of  Mace- 
donia, who  first  gave  themselves  to  the  Lord.  For 
ye  know  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that, 
though  He  was  rich,  yet  for  your  sakes  He  became 
poor.  Therefore,  see  that  ye  abound  in  this  grace 
also.*"  And,  as  our  Lord  sat  over  against  the  thir- 
teen chests  in  the  temple  that  day,  and  all  thirteen 
for  the  temple  upkeep  in  one  way  or  another,  it  was 
not  the  money  so  much  as  the  mind  of  the  con- 
tributors that  He  watched  and  weighed.  And  thus 
it  was  that  this  poor  widow^s  mind  weighed  out  for 
her  this  never-to-be-forgotten  approval  and  applause 
of  our  Lord,  "  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  that  this  poor 
widow  hath  cast  more  in  than  all  they  which  have 
cast  into  the  treasury.""  Because,  as  Paul  has  it, 
she  had  first  cast  in  herself.  That,  then,  is  our  first 
and  fundamental  lesson  in  all  church  finance.  It 
is  ourselves  first;  and  then,  after  ourselves,  it  is 
our  time,  and  our  money,  and  our  work.  Two 
mites  of  mind  and  intention  outweigh  out  of 
sight  a  million  of  mere  money  in  the  balances  of 
the  sanctuary. 

"  For  if  there  be  first  a  willing  mind,  it  is  accepted 
according  to  that  ^  man  hath,  and  not  according  to 
that  he  hath  not."  And  thus  it  comes  about  that 
such  a  noble  and  ennobling  equality  is  established 


THE  WIDOW  WITH  THE  TWO  MITES     115 

in  the  Church  of  Christ.  Why,  our  very  Lord 
Himself,  though  He  was  rich,  yet  for  our  sakes  had 
become  so  poor  that  the  poor  widow  was  richer  than 
He  was  that  day.  He  had  absolutely  nothing ;  not 
so  much  as  two  mites,  to  call  His  own  that  day. 
He  had  literally  and  absolutely  nothing  but  a  willing 
mind.  And  thus  it  was  that  He  sat  so  near  the 
treasury  enjoying  the  sight  of  the  liberality  of  those 
who  had  both  the  willing  mind  and  money  also.  He 
had  no  money.  He  had  only  Himself.  And  as  they 
cast  in  their  money.  He  again  cast  in  Himself.  All 
the  time  the  poor  widow  was  coming  up  the  street 
singing  to  her  own  heart  the  sixty-third  Psalm,  our 
Lord  was  sitting  in  the  treasury  singing  to  His 
Father  the  fortieth  Psalm.  "  Sacrifice  and  offering 
Thou  didst  not  desire.  Mine  ears  hast  thou  opened ; 
burnt  offering  and  sin  offering  hast  Thou  not  re- 
quired. Then  said  I,  Lo,  I  come.  In  the  volume 
of  the  book  it  is  written  of  me,  I  delight  to  do  Thy 
will,  O  my  God ;  yea,  Thy  law  is  within  my  heart.**' 
I  have  an  ancient  friend  in  this  congregation  who, 
also,  has  God's  law  in  this  respect  within  her  heart. 
Like  Paul's  Macedonian  saints  she  has  very  little 
more  than  a  willing  mind.  She  puts  on  her  old 
bonnet  once  a  year  and  is  announced  into  my  study 
with  five  shillings  in  her  hand.  Where  she  gets  it 
I  cannot  imagine,  but  this  is  what  she  does  with  it. 
I  have  another  fellow-communicant  who  calls  on  me 
annually  with  a  pound.  But  the  five-shilling  one 
touches  me  most.  For  her  little  room  looks  to  me 
when  I  visit  it  as  if  she  had  far  more  need,  not  of 
five  shillings,  but  of  five  pounds  every  year  either 


116  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

from  me  or  from  the  poor's  box.  But  she  has 
always  a  clean  chair  and  a  cup  of  tea  for  me  when 
I  call  to  see  her.  "  A  shilling,"  she  said  to  me  the 
other  day  when  she  came  on  her  annual  errand,  "  for 
Armenia.  A  shilling  for  the  Jewish  schools  in 
Constantinople.  A  shilling  for  the  miners"*  mission. 
A  shilling  for  the  Zenana  ladies.  And  a  shilling, 
over  and  above  Dr.  Chalmers's  penny  a  week,  for  the 
Sustentation  Fund.*"  I  would  be  a  brute  if  I  refused 
to  take  it.  I  would  have  yet  to  learn  the  first 
principles  of  the  grace  of  God  if  I  were  tempted  to 
say  to  her  to  take  it  away  and  to  buy  coals  with  it. 
For  all  the  coals  in  the  bowels  of  all  the  earth 
would  not  warm  her  heart  and  mine ;  and,  shall  I 
not  say  it,  her  Master's  heart,  as  her  love  for  these 
causes  of  His  warms  His  heart,  and  hers,  and  her 
minister's  heart.  A  well-to-do  worshipper  sent  me 
the  other  day  a  hundred  pounds  as  a  special  dona- 
tion, over  and  above  the  hundred  he  gives  in  monthly 
instalments  to  his  deacon.  For  more  reasons  than 
the  coming  dividend  in  May  I  was  mightily  delighted 
with  his  noble  and  timeous  donation.  But  the  five 
shillings  melted  my  heart  far  more.  He  who  sits 
over  against  His  treasury  here  also,  will  Himself  tell 
you  in  your  hearing  that  day  what  He  has  to  say 
about  these  two,  and  all  such  like  princely  minds. 
"  That " — it  was  said  by  a  great  preacher  in  a  land 
of  vineyards  and  olive  yards  in  illustration  and  in 
enforcement  of  this  very  same  subject  of  a  willing 
mind — "  that  which  comes  from  His  people  at  the 
gentle  pressure  of  their  Lord's  simple  bidding,  comes 
as  the  fine  and  sweet  and  golden-coloured  olive  oil 


THE  WIDOW  WITH  THE  TWO  MITES     117 

which  runs  freely  from  the  fruit,  almost  before  the 
press  has  ever  touched  it.  That,  again,  is  as  the 
dark  and  coarse  dregs,  which  is  wrung  out  by  the 
force  of  a  harsh  constraint  at  the  last.""  "When 
I  was  in  France,"*"  says  Bacon,  "  it  was  said  of  the 
Duke  of  Guise  that  he  was  the  greatest  usurer  in 
all  the  land,  because  he  had  turned  all  his  estates 
into  obligations ;  meaning  that  he  had  left  himself 
nothing,  but  only  had  bound  great  numbers  of  per- 
sons in  life-long  indebtedness  to  him/'  It  is  not  for 
the  lip  of  mortal  man  to  say  it,  but  it  is  true,  that 
Almighty  God  holds  Himself  under  obligations 
to  us  all,  con'esponding  to  all  the  estates,  great  or 
small,  that  we  have  spent  upon  Him  and  upon 
His  house.  And  if  it  is  only  the  inward  estate 
of  a  more  and  more  willing  mind,  what  usui*ers  we 
are,  and  what  an  obligation  will  He  acknowledge 
and  repay! 

Mutatis  mutandis^  as  the  Latin  lawyers  said ; 
making  all  allowance,  that  is,  for  the  immense 
change  of  dispensation  and  of  all  other  circum- 
stances, the  thirteen  temple-chests  of  our  Lord's 
day  were  just  the  Endowment  Funds,  and  the 
Augmentation  Funds,  and  the  Sustentation  Funds 
of  our  own  land  and  day.  There  were  special  chests 
elsewhere  in  the  temple  for  the  poor,  and  for  the 
education  of  the  children  of  the  poor,  but  the 
treasury  chests  over  against  which  our  Saviour  sat 
that  day  were  just  the  Deacons'  Courts  of  our  o^^^l 
Free  Church  and  other  churches.  It  is  doing  no 
exegetical  or  homiletical  violence  to  this  exquisite 
scene  to  transfer  every  syllable  of  it  to  ourselves  as  a 


118  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

congregation  and  a  court.  Indeed  it  would  take 
some  blindness  of  mind  and  some  pulpit  ineptitude 
to  lead  us  past  the  outstanding  lessons  and  applica- 
tions of  this  delightful  Scripture.  For  our  own 
Sustentation  Fund  is  just  that  very  same  temple 
treasury  over  again  exactly.  By  means  of  those 
chests  the  temple  worshippers  by  their  daily  and 
weekly  and  monthly  and  yearly  contributions  sup- 
ported the  priests,  the  doctors,  the  readers  of  the 
law,  and  all  the  other  office-bearers  of  the  sanctuary. 
And,  like  our  Sustentation  Fund  also,  all  classes 
contributed  to  the  support  of  the  sacred  house; 
from  the  rich  among  the  people  down  to  this  poor 
widow.  Just  as  with  ourselves  where  some  give  to 
this  one  fund  hundreds  of  pounds  a  year  and  others 
a  penny  a  week.  And  then  out  of  our  great  central 
fund  an  equal  dividend  is  made  every  May  to  every 
minister  of  the  Free  Church,  from  John  O'Groats 
to  Maidenkirk.  So  much  so,  that  wherever  you  see 
a  Free  Church  door  open  on  a  Sabbath  morning,  in 
town  or  country,  and  the  people  flocking  up  to  it, 
you  have  had  a  hand  in  opening  that  door,  and 
in  sustaining  that  minister,  and  in  preaching  the 
unsearchable  riches  of  Christ  to  that  congregation. 
And  if,  under  God's  hand,  you  are  such  a  widow 
that  you  have  nothing  to  give  to  your  deacon  but 
a  willing  mind,  and  a  word  of  God-speed,  that  is 
quite  enough.  You  are  a  rich  contributor  and  a 
true  pillar  of  the  Free  Church.  It  is  no  irreverence, 
but  only  a  becoming  gratitude  and  love  to  say  it, 
that  as  I  sit  at  the  head  of  the  monthly  table  of 
our  Deacons'  Court  I  have  something  in  my  heart 


THE  WIDOW  WITH  THE  TWO  MITES     119 

not  unlike  what  was  in  His  heart  who  sat  that 
day  in  the  treasury  of  the  temple.  As  I  see  our 
deacons  coming  in  and  laying  down  on  the  table, 
one  a  few  shillings,  and  another  hundreds  of  pounds, 
like  Him  I  rejoice  at  the  sight,  and  a  little  like  Him 
I  hope,  I  give  myself  again  to  the  service  of  God 
and  to  the  service  of  His  people.  If  you  could 
all  see,  as  I  every  first  Monday  of  every  month  see, 
our  splendidly -equipped  and  splendidly -managed 
Deacons'  Court,  the  sight  would  both  move,  and 
inflame,  and  sanctify  your  heart  also.  Tens  and 
twenties  of  the  finest  young  fellows  in  the  city; 
arts,  law,  medical,  and  divinity  students;  young 
merchants,  young  bankers,  young  advocates,  young 
tradesmen,  —  all  tabling  the  income  of  their 
districts,  and  all  received  with  the  applause  of  the 
elders  sitting  around.  And  if  you  could  hear  the 
treasurer's  monthly  report,  and  then  the  censor's  so 
stringent  monthly  scrutiny,  and  then  the  thanks- 
giving psalms  and  prayers,  you  would  give  far  more 
to  this  so  sustaining  and  so  sanctifying  Fund  than 
you  have  yet  given.  And  you  would  see,  not  by 
any  means  to  perfection,  but  to  a  certain  honest 
approximation,  what  a  modern  treasury-chest  of 
the  Lord's  house  ought  to  be,  and  what  it  will  yet 
be  in  every  congregation  in  the  coming  days  of  the 
Church  of  Christ  in  Scotland.  For  it  is  not  by  any 
means  the  enormous  wealth  of  this  congregation 
that  has  given  to  Free  St.  George's  its  honourable 
place  at  the  head  of  this  honourable  Fund.  It  is, 
I  shall  say  it  in  your  presence,  the  exceptional 
intelligence    in    church   matters  and    in   personal 


120  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

religion  that  has  all  along,  with  all  its  drawbacks, 
characterised  Dr.  Andrew  Thomson's  and  Dr. 
Candlish's  congregation.  And,  taken  along  with 
all  that,  its  absolutely  unique  and  unapproached 
Deacons'  Court. 


PONTIUS  PILATE  121 


LXXXIV 
PONTIUS  PILATE 

iT  was  Pontius  Pilate  who  crucified  our 
Lord.  But  for  Pontius  Pilate  our  Lord 
would  not  have  been  crucified.  In  spite 
of  Pontius  Pilate  our  Lord  might 
have  been  stoned  to  death  before  the 
palace  of  the  high  priest  that  passover  morning.  Or, 
lest  there  should  be  an  uproar  among  the  people, 
He  might  have  been  fallen  upon  and  murdered 
when  He  was  on  His  knees  in  the  garden  of  Geth- 
semane  that  passover  night.  The  assassins  of  the 
city  might  have  covenanted  with  Caiaphas  that  they 
would  neither  eat  bread  nor  drink  water  till  they 
had  killed  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  The  whole  council 
of  the  scribes,  and  the  elders,  and  the  chief  priests 
had  finally  determined  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  one 
way  or  another,  must  be  put  to  death ;  but,  with 
all  that,  it  was  Pontius  Pilate  who  put  Him  to  the 
death  of  the  cross. 

Pontius  Pilate  was  the  Roman  governor.  He 
was  the  Roman  procurator  placed  at  that  time  over 
Judah  and  Jerusalem.  He  was  Caesar's  representa- 
tive and  viceroy.     What  Tiberius  himself  was  in 


122  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

Rome,  all  that  Pontius  Pilate  was  in  Jerusalem. 
The  Emperor  Tiberius  had  made  a  special  selection 
of  Pontius  Pilate,  and  had  sent  him  east  with 
special  instructions  to  govern,  with  his  very  best 
ability,  the  very  difficult  province  of  Judea.  Pilate"*s 
was  a  much-coveted  post  among  his  rivals  in  Rome, 
but  he  had  not  found  it  to  be  a  bed  of  roses.  For, 
as  the  Jews  had  been  the  hardest  to  conquer, 
so  had  they  continued  to  be  the  hardest  to  hold 
down,  of  all  the  races  that  ever  writhed  under 
Caesar's  heel.  The  conquest  of  Jerusalem,  and  the 
military  occupation  and  civil  management  of  that 
city  and  the  surrounding  country,  cost  the  Roman 
Empire  far  more  men  and  far  more  administrative 
anxiety  than  all  that  Jewry  was  ever  worth.  But 
the  Roman  statesmanship  was  not  to  be  baffled,  nor 
were  the  Roman  eagles  to  be  chased  out  of  Jeru- 
salem, by  that  malignant  remnant  of  the  Hebrew 
race.  And  thus  it  was  that  a  procurator  of  such 
sleepless  vigilance  and  such  relentless  temper  as 
Pontius  Pilate  was  selected  and  sent  out  to  mingle 
the  blood  of  all  Jewish  insurrectionaries  with  their 
sacrifices.  And  it  had  demanded  all  Pilate's  per- 
sonal astuteness,  and  all  his  practised  statecraft, 
and  it  had  called  forth  no  little  of  his  proverbial 
cruelty  also,  in  order  to  stamp  out  one  outbreak  of 
the  insurgent  Jews  after  another.  Till  it  would  be 
hard  to  tell  which  of  the  two  was  by  this  time  the 
more  exasperated  at  the  other:  Pontius  Pilate  at 
the  rulers  of  Jerusalem,  or  the  rulers  of  Jerusalem 
at  Pontius  Pilate.  The  rage  and  the  revenge  of 
the  rulers  of  Jerusalem  against  Pontius  Pilate  bum 


PONTIUS  PILATE  123 

to  this  day  like  coals  of  juniper  in  the  pages  both 
of  Philo  and  of  Josephus. 

But  of  all  the  problems  and  responsibilities  that 
had  arisen  in  his  province  during  Pilate^s  procurator- 
ship,  nothing  had  so  much  perplexed  him,  nothing 
had  put  him  so  completely  out  of  his  depth,  as  this 
widespread  and  mysterious  movement  originated  by 
John  of  Jerusalem,  and  carried  on  by  Jesus  of 
Nazareth.  Pilate  had  often  wished  that  he  could 
detect  one  single  atom  of  danger  to  the  Roman 
domination  in  John  or  in  Jesus,  or  in  any  of  their 
disciples,  or  in  any  of  their  doctrines  or  practices. 
But,  absolute  wolf  for  Jewish  blood  as  Pilate  always 
was,  he  was  not  wicked  enough  nor  wolf  enough  to 
murder  an  innocent  man  merely  because  he  could 
not  comprehend  him. 

'  Divine  and  Most  Illustrious  Tiberius,'  so  ran  one 
of  Pilate's  procuratorial  reports  about  this  time, 
'  all  is  quiet  here.  I  have  had  my  troubles  with 
'  this  insufferable  and  ungovernable  people,  but 
'  neither  watchfulness  nor  firmness  has  been  wanting 
'  on  my  part.  Only,  the  former  matter  of  Jesus 
<  the  son  of  David  still  perplexes  me.  I  sometimes 
'  wish  that  a  wiser  man  than  I  am  were  in  my  place, 

*  so  that  he  might  better  report  to  you  about  this 
'  mysterious  movement  among  this  people.  Had  this 
'  Jesus  been  an  ordinary  Jewish  zealot,  or  an  insur- 

*  rectionary  of  an  everyday  order,  my  duty  to  my 
'  master  would  soon  have  been  fulfilled.  But,  as  a 
'  matter  of  fact,  Jesus  the  Christ,  as  he  is  called, 
'  is  worth   more   to  my  administration  than   any 

*  legion  of  my  armed  men.     He  is  the  most  peace- 


124  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

'  able  and  inoifensive  of  men.  I  know  what  I  say, 
'  for  I  have  had  him  and  his  discipleship  watched 
'  and  reported  on  in  all  places  and  at  all  times.  Not 
'  only  so,  but  it  was  only  last  week  that  I  deter- 
'  mined  to  be  a  spy  upon  him  myself,  so  perplexed 
'  was  I  with  all  that  I  had  heard  about  him.     I 

*  accordingly  most  effectually  disguised  myself,  a 
'  thing   I   had    never    done    before,   and   went    to 

*  where  he  dwelt  and  told  him  that  I  had  for  long 
'  been  a  secret  disciple  of  his.  I  am  come  by  night, 
'  I   told   him,  for   fear  of  his   enemies  and  mine. 

*  But  instead  of  his  royal  descent  from  David,  or 
'  his  Hebrew  Messiahship,  or  any  pretensions  or 
'  expectations  of  his  of  any  kind,  he  would  speak 
'  to  me  about  nothing  and  about  no  one — David 

*  nor  Solomon,  Caesar  nor  Caiaphas — but  only  about 
'  myself.  Jew,  or  Roman,  or  whatever  I  was,  I 
'  must  be  born  again,  he  insisted.  I  must  be 
'  baptized  in  Jordan,  confessing  my  sins.  Till  I 
''  was  so  born  again,  I,  like  all  men,  loved  the  dark- 

*  ness  rather  than  the  light,  because  my  deeds  were 
'  evil.     And,  that  the  only  way  to  know  the  truth, 

and  to  be  sure  of  the  truth,  and  not  to  be  afraid  or 
'  ashamed  of  the  truth,  was  just  to  do  my  duty  to  the 
'  truth,  and  to  do  nothing  else.  And  when  I  asked 
'  him  why  he  did  not  leave  this  so  untruthful  and  so 

*  unfriendly  land,  and  go  and  open  a  philosopher''s 

*  school  about  all  these  things  in  Rome  or  Athens 
'  or  Alexandria,  his  only  reply  to  me  was  that  he 
'  was  not  sent  but  to  the  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of 
'  Israel.     And,  then,  his  eyes  and  his  hands  as  he 

*  dismissed  me  from  his  presence  were  absolutely  the 


PONTIUS  PILATE  125 

*  eyes  and  the  hands  of  a  king.     I  shall  not  lift 
'  a  single  finger  against  this  "  King  of  the  Jews," 

*  as  his  disciples  call  him,  till  I  am  commanded  by 
'  Caesar  so  to  do.' 

Well,  it  was  while  Pontius  Pilate's  procuratorial 
despatch  was  still  on  its  way  to  Rome  that  the  case 
contained  in  it  came  to  a  head  in  Jerusalem.  It 
was  the  morning  of  the  passover,  and  it  was  still 
early,  when  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  with  His  hands 
bound  behind  His  back,  was  led  up  by  the  whole 
Sanhedrim  to  Pilate's  judgment-seat.  As  soon  as 
he  had  sat  down  on  his  seat  of  judgment-Pilate 
demanded  of  the  rulers  of  Jerusalem,  "  What  accusa- 
tion bring  ye  against  this  man  ?  "  They  answered 
and  said,  '  If  he  were  not  a  malefactor,  and  indeed 
deserving  of  the  death  of  the  cross,  we  would  not 
have  brought  him  before  thee.  We  found  this 
fellow  perverting  the  people  and  forbidding  the 
people  to  give  tribute  to  Caesar,  saying  that  he 
himself  is  Christ  a  king,  and  the  Son  of  God.' 
When  Pilate  heard  that,  he  took  the  prisoner  apart, 
and  asked  Him,  "Whence  art  Thou?"  Pilate's 
heart  was  made  of  Roman  iron,  and  his  Roman 
heart  had  never  failed  him  before.  But,  altogether ; 
what  with  all  he  had  heard  and  seen  of  our  Lord 
already;  and  what  with  all  he  heard  and  saw  of  Him 
that  morning ;  Pilate's  heart  absolutely  stood  still 
as  he  ventured  to  put  to  Him  the  staggered 
question:  "Whence  art  Thou.'*"  And  Pilate's 
secret  fear  became  downright  terror  when  his 
prisoner  looked  up  at  him  with  such  eyes,  but 
answered  him  nothing.    It  was  at  that  very  moment 


126  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

that  Pilate's  wife  exclaimed  to  her  husband  :  '  How 
dreadful  is  this  Roman  praetorium  to  me  this  pass- 
over  morning !  Let  us  arise  and  return  to  Caesarea  ! 
Have  thou  nothing  to  do  with  this  just  man,  for  I 
have  suffered  many  things  this  whole  past  night  in 
dreams  and  in  visions  because  of  him ! '  Just  what 
shape  her  great  sufferings  had  taken  all  that  night 
we  are  not  told.  She,  too,  may  have  had  reports 
brought  to  her  about  the  preaching  of  John  and 
Jesus.  She,  too,  may  have  had  her  spies  set  upon 
Him.  She,  too,  may  have  had  told  her  some  of 
His  tremendous  sermons  that  very  passover  week. 
For  all  Jerusalem — from  top  to  bottom — was  ring- 
ing with  those  terrible  passover  parables  of  His 
And,  out  of  all  that  she  had  seen  and  heard  and 
apprehended, — what  sufferings  may  not  have  come 
to  Pilate's  wife  in  her  divinely-ordered  dream  that 
so  awful  night?  She  may  have  seen  the  Son  of 
Man  coming  in  His  glory,  and  all  His  holy  angels 
with  Him.  And  she  may  have  seen  the  kings  of 
the  earth,  and  the  great  men,  and  the  rich  men, 
and  the  mighty  men,  and  her  husband  among  them, 
hiding  themselves  in  the  dens  and  in  the  rocks  of 
the  mountains :  and  saying  to  the  mountains  and 
the  rocks.  Fall  on  us,  and  hide  us  from  the  face  of 
Him  that  sitteth  on  the  throne.  *  Have  thou 
nothing  to  do  with  that  just  man,'  she  said,  'for  I 
have  suffered  some  fearful  sights  this  night  because 
of  Him  ! '  "  Wife,""  said  the  gaoler  of  Derby,  with 
a  doleful  voice,  "I  have  seen  the  day  of  judgment : 
and  I  saw  George  Fox  there,  and  I  was  afraid  of 
him,  because  I  had  done  him  so  much  wrong,  and 


PONTIUS  PILATE  127 

had  spoken  so  much  against  him  in  the  taverns  and 
the  alehouses." 

With  all  his  heart  would  Pilate  have  fallen  in 
with  his  wife's  warning,  had  it  been  possible  for  him 
to  do  so.  He  did  not  need  her  urgent  message.  He 
knew  far  better  than  she  did  that  the  prisoner  at  his 
bar  was  a  just  man,  and  something  more  than  a  just 
man,  but  that  only  tied  up  Pilate's  hands  all  the 
tighter.  "Have  thou  nothing  to  do  with  that  just 
man  ! "  Yes ;  but  how  is  Pilate  to  get  rid  of  that 
just  man,  hunted  to  death  as  both  that  just  man 
and  his  judge  both  are  by  those  inhuman  hyaenas 
who  fill  the  palace  court  with  their  bloodthirsty 
cries?  'Tell  me,' was  Pilate's  despairing  reply  to 
his  trembling  wife ;  '  tell  me  how  I  am  to  wash  my 
hands  of  this  j  ust  man :  tell  me  how  I  am  to  set  him 
free,  and  at  the  same  time  to  satisfy  his  enemies, 
who  have  both  him  and  me  in  their  power  ? '  But 
as  their  clamour  still  went  on  Pilate  caught  at  one 
of  their  cries  and  thought  he  saw  in  it  a  loop-hole 
for  himself  at  any  rate,  if  not  for  his  prisoner.  "  He 
stirreth  up  the  people  from  Galilee  to  this  place ! " 
they  cried.  Now,  as  Pilate's  good  planet  would 
have  it,  who  should  be  in  Jerusalem  that  passover 
morning  but  Herod  Antipas,  under  whose  j  urisdic- 
tion  all  Galilee  was,  and  Jesus  therefore,  as  a  Galilean. 
And  the  tetrarch  was  vastly  pleased  with  the  un- 
expected recognition  of  his  royal  sceptre,  when  this 
Galilean  prisoner  was  sent  by  Pilate  to  receive  Herod's 
sentence  on  him.  And  all  the  more  so,  that  Pilate 
and  Herod  had  had  so  many  quan-els  together 
about  this  very  matter  of  Herod's  jurisdiction.    But 


128  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

here  is  the  Roman  governor,  in  his  own  city,  and 
at  his  own  instance,  recognising  in  the  most  open  and 
handsome  way  the  too-oft  invaded  rights  and  pre- 
rogatives of  the  king  of  Galilee.  "  And  the  same 
day,""*  says  the  Evangelist,  "  Pilate  and  Herod  were 
made  friends  together  again."  And  made  friends, 
as  that  poor  fox  little  knew,  at  such  a  cheap  price 
on  Pilate's  part !  But  Pilate  was  not  to  get  so  easily 
rid  of  our  Lord  as  all  that.  Herod  Antipas  was 
more  of  a  circus-master  than  a  serious-minded 
monarch ;  and,  instead  of  taking  up  the  case  that 
had  been  referred  to  his  jurisdiction,  all  that  Herod 
aimed  at  was  to  get  some  amusement  out  of  the 
accused.  '  He  is  the  King  of  the  Jews,  is  he  ?  He 
is  a  candidate  for  my  royal  seat,  is  he  ?  Then  put 
the  white  coat  of  a  candidate  upon  him,  and  send 
him  back  to  Pilate.  The  Governor  will  enjoy  my 
jest:  and  it  will  somewhat  cement  our  recovered 
friendship ! ' 

It  is  impossible  for  us  to  enter  into  all  our  Lord''s 
thoughts  as  He  was  dragged  up  and  down  the  streets 
of  Jerusalem  that  passover  morning.  Dragged  in 
cords  from  Gethsemane  to  Caiaphas,  and  from 
Caiaphas  to  Pilate,  and  from  Pilate  to  Herod,  and 
from  Herod  back  again  to  Pilate.  And  all  the 
time  with  all  the  shame  and  insult  heaped  upon 
Him  that  the  evil  hearts  of  His  enemies  could  devise. 
Our  Lord's  thoughts  and  feelings  at  all  times  are  a 
great  deep  to  us.  But  Pilate  was  a  man  of  like 
passions  with  ourselves,  and  we  can  quite  well  under- 
stand what  his  thoughts  and  his  feelings  were  when 
the  chief  priests  were  back  again  with  their  prisoner 


PONTIUS  PILATE  129 

at  the  praetorium.  What  is  Pilate  to  do  ?  With  all 
his  power  and  with  all  his  diplomacy  what  is  Pilate 
to  do  next  ?  You  all  know  what  he  did  next.  He 
put  up  Jesus  to  the  vote  of  the  people  against 
Barabbas,  trusting  that  the  gratitude  and  the  pity 
and  the  sense  of  fairplay  among  the  common  people 
would  carry  the  day.  But,  difficult  as  it  is  to 
explain,  they  all  suddenly  turned  round  and  cried 
out  with  one  voice,  "  Away  with  Him !  Away  with 
Him,  and  release  to  us  Barabbas  !  "  "  Why  ? " 
demanded  Pilate,  with  indignation  and  exaspera- 
tion, 'What  evil  has  this  man  ever  done  ?  Neither 
Herod  nor  I  have  found  the  shadow  of  a  fault  in 
Him.'  You  have  seen  the  vote  taken  at  an  election- 
time  in  your  own  city.  And  you  have  seen  how  ill- 
will,  and  envy,  and  personal  spite  are  so  much  more 
active  at  such  times  than  justice,  and  gratitude,  and 
goodness,  and  truth.  Ignorance,  and  prejudice,  and 
pure  maliciousness,  will  come  out  to  the  polling- 
booth  on  their  crutches  and  will  need  neither  your 
canvasser  nor  your  carriage  to  come  for  them.  "  Not 
this  man,  but  Barabbas ! "  cried  the  rulers  of  the 
Jews ;  and  to  a  man  the  rabble  of  the  people  cried 
out  with  them,  "Away  with  Him  !  Away  with  Him  1 
Crucify  Him  !    Crucify  Him  ! " 

Whatever  the  wicked  spirit  may  have  been  that 
took  possession  of  the  populace  of  Jerusalem  that 
awful  passover  morning,  the  Holy  Ghost  Himself 
witnesses  to  us  that  it  was  the  wickedest  spirit  in  all 
hell  that  had  come  up  and  had  taken  possession  of 
Caiaphas  and  his  colleagues  now  for  a  long  time. 
And  we  knew  it  before  it  was  told  us.     We  have 


130  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

seen  it  coming  all  the  time.  And  Pilate  saw  it 
that  morning,  and  had  seen  it  coming  all  the  time, 
and  had  told  Tiberius  about  it.  Our  Lord's  life 
and  teaching  and  wonderful  works,  and  the  multi- 
tudes that  were  attracted  to  Him  by  all  that ; — it 
would  have  been  the  New  Jerusalem  above,  and 
Caiaphas  would  have  been  a  sanctified  saint  in 
heaven,  not  to  have  had  his  heart  burned  up  with 
envy  within  him  at  our  Lord's  popularity  with  the 
people.  It  is  at  this  moment  in  the  Passion  Play  at 
Ober-Ammergau  that  the  chorus  comes  forward 
with  this  warning  to  us : 

'Tis  envy — which  no  mercy  knows. 
In  which  hell's  flame  most  fiercely  glows- 
Lights  this  devouring  fire. 
All 's  sacrificed  unto  its  lust — 
Nothing  too  sacred,  good,  or  just 
To  fall  to  its  desire. 
Oh  !  woe  to  those  this  passion  sweeps 
Helpless  and  bound  into  the  deeps  .' 

Pilate  had  never  heard  of  the  Jerusalem  that  is 
above,  but  no  man  knew  better  than  he  did  the 
Jerusalem  that  was  yelUng  like  all  the  furies  all 
around  him.  Caiaphas  had  put  on  his  holiest  of 
masks  that  holiest  of  mornings,  and  he  had  de- 
manded swift  execution  to  be  done  on  this  traitor 
against  Caesar  and  this  blasphemer  against  God. 
But  Pilate  was  not  a  child.  Heathen  as  Pilate 
was,  and  hardened  as  a  stone  in  his  heart  as  he  was, 
he  both  saw  down  into,  and  despised  and  detested 
every  high  priest,  and  scribe,  and  elder  of  them  all. 
It  was  a  noble  hyperbole  that  was  put  upon  Plato's 


PONTIUS  PILATE  ISl 

tombstone:  "Here  lies  a  man  too  good  and  too 
great  for  envy."  But  that  literally  true  epitaph,  and 
no  hyperbole,  could  not  have  been  written  even  on 
Joseph's  new  tomb  as  long  as  Caiaphas  remained 
alive  in  Jerusalem.  Our  Lord  Himself  was  neither 
too  good  nor  too  great  for  Caiaphas'*s  envy  and  ill- 
will,  nor  for  Pilate's  selfish  cowardice  and  open  sale 
of  truth  and  justice.  For,  all  this  time,  with  all 
his  power,  and  with  all  his  pride,  and  with  all  his 
astuteness,  and  with  all  his  resource,  the  chain  of  his 
terrible  fate  was  fast  closing  around  Pontius  Pilate. 
And  his  rage,  and  his  pain,  and  his  pride  drove  him 
well-nigh  demented.  Never,  surely,  since  mortal 
man  was  first  taken  and  held  fast  in  the  snare  of 
Satan,  was  any  miserable  man  more  completely 
seized  and  carried  captive  of  his  past  sins  and  his 
present  circumstances,  than  Pontius  Pilate  was  that 
passover  morning.  And  it  all  came  to  a  head,  and 
the  fatal  chain  was  all  riveted  round  Pilate  for  the 
last  time,  when  the  savage  threat  was  spat  up  at 
him  :  "  If  thou  let  this  man  go,  thou  art  not  Caesar's 
friend  ! "  That  was  enough.  For  at  that  Pilate  took 
water,  in  his  defeat  and  despair,  and  washed  his 
hands  before  the  multitude,  and  said  :  'I,  at  any 
rate,  am  innocent  of  the  blood  of  this  just  person  : 
See  ye,  his  murderers,  to  it.'     And  they  saw  to  it. 

All  that  is  not  the  half  of  the  history  of  that 
awful  morning  to  Pontius  Pilate,  and  of  all  that  he 
went  through.  But  that  is  enough  to  set  Pilate 
sufficiently  before  our  eyes  in  the  hour  and  power  of 
his  fatal  temptation.  And  all  that  is  told  us  in 
order  that  we  may  turn  our  eyes  inward  and  ask 


132  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

ourselves  what  we  would  have  done  that  passover 
morning  had  we  been  in  Pilate's  place ;  had  we 
stood  between  the  deadly  anger  of  Caesar  at  us  on 
the  one  hand,  and  with  only  a  just  man  to  be 
scourged  and  crucified  on  the  other  hand !  We 
would  have  done  just  what  Pilate  did.  To  protect 
ourselves;  to  stand  well  with  our  masters,  and  to 
preserve  our  paying  post;  we  would  have  washed 
our  hands,  and  would  have  scourged  Jesus,  righteous 
man  and  all.  Who  here,  and  in  this  hour  of  truth, 
will  dare  to  cast  a  stone  at  Pontius  Pilate  ?  What 
self-seeking,  what  self-sheltering,  what  truth-selling, 
what  soul-selling  man  ? 

O  break,  O  break,  hard  heart  of  mine  ! 

Thy  weak  self-love  and  guilty  pride 
His  Pilate  and  His  Judas  were  : 

Jesus,  our  Lord,  is  crucified  ! 

I  know  all  the  old  legends,  sacred  and  profane, 
about  Pontius  Pilate,  and  about  his  miserable  end. 
But  I  shall  not  believe  any  of  them.  I  shall  continue 
to  hope  against  hope  for  poor  Pontius  Pilate.  If  my 
sale  of  my  Saviour,  and  of  my  own  soul,  has  so  often 
chased  me  up  to  the  Cross  of  Christ,  so  I  think 
Pilate''s  remorse  must  have  chased  him.  And  as  he 
washed  his  hands  in  water  that  passover  morning, 
so  I  shall  hope  he  washed  his  hands  and  his  heart  ten 
thousand  times  in  after  days  in  that  Fountain  for  sin 
which  he  had  such  an  awful  hand  in  opening.  The 
world  would  not  contain  the  books  if  all  the  names 
of  all  the  chief  priests,  and  scribes,  and  inhabitants 
of  Jerusalem ;  and  all  the  governors,  and  centurions, 


PONTIUS  PILATE  ISS 

and  soldiers  of  Rome,  who  came  to  believe  on  Christ 
crucified  were  to  be  written  in  them.  "  Ye  men 
of  Israel,  hear  these  words :  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  a 
man  approved  of  God,  Him  ye  have  taken,  and  by 
wicked  hands  have  crucified  and  slain.  And  now, 
brethren,  I  wot  that  through  ignorance  ye  did  it, 
as  did  also  your  rulers.  But  unto  you  first,  God, 
having  raised  up  His  Son  Jesus,  has  sent  Him  to 
bless  you,  in  turning  away  every  one  of  you  from  his 
iniquities.""  Who  can  tell  ?  With  that  glorious 
Gospel  preached  far  and  wide,  and  with  the  Re- 
deemer's prayer  offered  with  His  own  blood  to  back 
it  on  the  Cross,  Father,  forgive  them  :  who  can  tell? 
I,  for  one,  shall  continue  to  hope  for  Pontius  Pilate, 
as  for  myself.     For — 

O  love  of  God  !  O  sin  of  man  ! 

In  this  dread  act  your  strength  is  tried, 
And  victory  remains  with  love  : 

Jesus,  our  Lord,  is  crucified  ! 


1S4  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 


LXXXV 

PILATE'S  WIFE 

UR  men  of  natural  science  are  able  some- 
times to  reconstruct  the  shape  and  the 
size  of  a  completely  extinct  species 
from  a  single  bone,  or  splinter  of  a 
bone,  that  has  been  quite  accidentally 
dug  out  of  the  earth.  And  in  something  of  the 
same  way  Pilate's  wife  rises  up  before  us  out  of  a 
single  sentence  in  Matthew's  Gospel.  We  see  the 
governor's  wife  only  for  a  moment.  We  hear  her 
only  for  a  moment.  But  in  the  space  of  that  short 
moment  of  time  she  so  impresses  her  sudden  foot- 
print on  this  page  of  this  Gospel,  that  as  long  as 
this  Gospel  is  read,  this  that  Pilate's  wife  said  and 
did  that  Passover  morning  shall  be  held  in  remem- 
brance for  a  most  honourable  memorial  of  her. 

Both  Pilate  and  his  wife,  in  Paul's  words,  were 
Gentiles  in  the  flesh,  being  aliens  from  the  common- 
wealth of  Israel,  and  strangers  from  the  covenants 
of  promise,  having  no  hope,  and  without  God  in 
the  world.  Both  Pilate  and  his  wife  were  perfect 
heathens,  as  we  would  say.  They  were  still  at 
what  we  would  call  the  pre-patriarchal  period  of 


PILATE'S  WIFE  135 

divine  revelation.  They  were  still  very  much  what 
Abraham  himself  was  when  God  chose  him,  and 
spake  to  him,  and  said  to  him,  "  Get  thee  out  of 
thy  country,  and  from  thy  kindred,  and  from  thy 
father's  house,  unto  a  land  that  I  will  show  thee." 
As  regards  many  of  the  good  things  of  this  life ; 
learning,  civilisation,  refinement,  and  such  like ;  the 
Roman  governor  and  his  gifted  wife  were  very  fax 
advanced ;  but  as  regards  what  our  Lord  estimates 
to  be  the  one  thing  needful  for  all  men,  they  were 
not  unlike  Terah,  and  Nahor,  and  Abram,  when 
they  still  dwelt  in  old  time  on  the  other  side  of  the 
flood,  and  still  served  other  gods.  Both  Pilate  and 
his  wife  were  still  at  that  stage  in  which  God  was 
wont  to  speak  to  men  at  sundry  times  and  in  divers 
manners ;  and,  among  other  manners,  in  the  manner 
of  a  dream.  For,  till  Holy  Scripture  came  to  some 
fulness  and  to  some  clearness,  we  find  God  revealing 
Himself  in  a  dream,  not  only  to  Abraham,  and 
Pharaoh,  and  Nebuchadnezzar ;  but  even  to  Jacob, 
and  Joseph,  and  Solomon,  and  down  even  to  such 
New  Testament  men  as  Peter,  and  Paul,  and  John. 
Almighty  God  has  complete  control  and  continual 
command  of  all  the  avenues  that  lead  into  the  soul 
of  man,  and  He  sends  His  message  to  this  soul  and 
to  that  at  the  very  time  and  in  the  very  way  that 
seems  wisest  and  best  in  His  sight.  And  Elilnrs 
remarkable  description  of  the  manner  and  the  matter 
of  one  of  his  own  divine  dreams  may  be  taken  as  a 
prophetic  forecast  of  this  passover  dream  of  Pilate's 
wife :  "  In  a  dream,  in  a  vision  of  the  night,  when 
deep  sleep  falleth  upon  men,  in  slumberings  upon  the 


1S6  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

bed :  then  He  openeth  the  ears  of  men,  and  sealeth 
their  instruction,  that  He  may  withdraw  man  from 
his  purpose,  and  hide  pride  from  man.  He  keepeth 
back  his  soul  from  the  pit,  and  his  life  from 
perishing  by  the  sword.  He  is  chastened  also 
with  pain  upon  his  bed,  and  the  multitude  of 
his  bones  with  strong  pain.""  A  perfect  picture 
of  Pilate's  wife's  dream  in  the  Praetorium  that 
night,  and  of  its  divinely-intended  purpose  to- 
ward Pilate  himself,  which  was  to  withdraw  Pilate 
from  his  purpose,  and  to  keep  back  his  soul  from 
the  pit. 

Long  before  that  passover  morning  Pilate''s  wife 
had  made  up  her  mind  about  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 
With  all  the  wealth  and  all  the  rank  of  the  city 
against  Him  ;  with  all  the  temple  learning  and  all 
the  temple  authority  against  Him  ;  with,  without 
exception,  every  responsible  ruler  and  every  influ- 
ential man  in  all  Jerusalem  against  Him ;  and  with 
all  her  own  and  all  her  husband's  original  interests 
and  natural  instincts  strongly  prejudicing  her  against 
Him — she  had  overcome  all  that,  and  had  deliber- 
ately and  resolutely  taken  up  His  side.  She  had 
made  up  her  mind  that  whatever  else  He  was,  or 
might  turn  out  to  be,  at  any  rate  up  to  the  present 
moment.  He  had  been  a  blameless  man.  He  had 
gone  about  doing  good.  The  procurator's  palace 
was  the  centre  and  the  seat  of  everything.  All  the 
telegraph  wires  ran  up  and  delivered  themselves 
there.  Everything  that  took  place  in  the  province 
was  instantly  reported  at  the  Praetorium.  Not  a 
word  of  rebellion  was  whispered  in  closets,  not  a 


PILATE'S  WIFE  137 

zealot  stirred  a  foot  in  the  greatest  stealth,  not  a 
sword  was  sharpened  at  midnight  in  all  the  land, 
but  it  was  all  as  well  known  to  Pilate  and  to  his  wife 
as  to  the  intending  insurrectionary  himself.  And, 
though  the  Roman  procurators  were  wont  to  leave 
their  wives  at  home  when  they  set  out  to  their  pro- 
vinces, Pilate's  wife  was  far  too  meet  a  help  to  him 
to  be  left  behind  him  when  he  was  wrestling  for  his 
life  with  those  rebellious  and  treacherous  Jews  in 
Jerusalem.  And  it  was  so.  The  procurator's  wife 
shared  all  her  husband's  anxieties,  all  his  responsi- 
bihties,  and  all  his  apprehensions.  She  was  with 
him  in  everything  with  her  keen  mind  and  her  noble 
heart.  And  with  all  her  swift  divination  she  had 
come  to  the  sure  conclusion  long  ago  that  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  was  all  and  more  than  He  seemed  to  be. 
Her  Hebrew  maid  could  not  assist  her  Roman 
mistress  to  dress,  but,  one  way  or  other,  the  same 
subject  of  conversation  continually  came  up — what 
He  had  last  said,  and  what  He  had  last  done.  She 
could  not  drive  out  through  the  gate  of  the  city  but 
there  was  His  congregation  covering  the  highway. 
She  could  not  return  home  that  He  was  not  healing 
some  sick  man  at  the  door  of  the  temple.  And,  all 
that  passover  week, — what  with  her  husband's  spies, 
and  what  with  her  own,  she  knew  as  well  as  Annas 
and  Caiaphas  themselves  knew  what  they  had  deter- 
mined to  do.  She  had  watched  out  of  her  window 
what  we  now  know  as  the  entry  into  Jerusalem. 
She  had  heard  coming  over  the  valley  the  voices  of 
the  children  in  the  temple  crying  out  and  saying, 
"  Hosanna  to  the  Son  of  David  ! "   till  she  wished 


138  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

that  her  children  were  among  them.  The  last  thing 
that  absolutely  carried  her  whole  heart  captive  was 
Martha  and  Mary  and  their  brother  Lazarus.  And 
it  had  needed  all  her  own  self-command,  and  all  her 
husband's  command  over  her  as  her  husband,  to 
keep  her  from  going  out  to  Bethany  to  see  Lazarus 
with  her  own  eyes.  She  had  often  read  of  such 
things  in  her  own  ancient  books  at  home,  but  such 
a  thing  as  this  had  never  come  so  near  her  before. 
And  then,  when  the  report  came  to  the  Praetorium 
that  Lazarus's  friend  had  been  betrayed  and  taken 
prisoner,  and  was  all  that  night  to  be  under  trial 
before  Caiaphas  and  the  council;  and  then,  that 
it  would  all  roll  in  upon  her  husband  the  next 
morning — if  a  dream  cometh  through  the  multi- 
tude of  business — no  wonder  that  Pilate's  wife 
dreamed  about  Jesus  of  Nazareth  all  that  passover 
night ! 

Just  what  shape  her  dream  took  that  passover 
night,  I  would  give  something  for  myseli^  to  know. 
And  it  is  not  mere  and  idle  curiosity  that  makes 
me  say  that,  for  it  would  be  to  me  a  great  lesson 
in  the  first  principles  of  divine  revelation  to  the 
Old  Testament  Church,  as  well  as  to  this  Roman 
matron's  soul,  and  to  my  own  soul.  It  would  be 
as  good  as  another  disinterred  manuscript  of  the 
Acts  of  Pilate,  did  we  know  something  of  the 
multitude  of  this  business  about  Jesus  that  had 
gone  that  night  to  make  up  that  so  suffering  and 
so  opportune  dream.  With  the  books  of  the 
Hebrew  prophets  on  her  table,  and  with  the  echoes 
of  John's  preaching  and  Jesus'  parables  filling  the 


PILATE'S  WIFE  139 

air  all  around  her,  what  may  the  governor's  wife 
not  have  seen  and  heard  in  the  visions  and  voices  of 
that  ominous  night?  She  may  have  seen  a  hand 
coming  out  and  ^vriting  it  on  the  wall  of  the  Prae- 
torium,  "  Mene,  IMene,  Tekel,  Upharsin."  She  may 
have  seen  the  same  sight  that  made  Daniel  himself 
to  be  troubled,  and  his  countenance  to  change. 
She  may  have  seen  the  Ancient  of  days,  with  His 
throne  like  the  fiery  flame,  and  His  wheels  as  burn- 
ing fire,  and  the  judgment  set,  and  the  books 
opened.  She  may  have  seen  one  like  the  Son  of 
Man  come  with  the  clouds  of  heaven,  till  His 
kingdom  was  an  everlasting  kingdom,  and  His 
dominion  that  shall  not  be  destroyed.  Till,  'For 
God's  sake,'  she  said,  '  have  thou  nothing  to  do  with 
that  dreadful  man  ? '  Now,  among  all  your  dreams 
and  visions  on  your  bed  do  you  ever  dream  about 
Jesus  Christ  ?  You  dream  every  night  about  this 
man  and  that  woman  that  you  love  or  hate.  Do 
you  ever  dream  about  your  Saviour  ?  Do  you  love 
and  fear  Him  to  that  extent  ?  K  He  were  actually 
engaged  within  you  on  the  salvation  of  your  soul, 
the  multitudinous  business  connected  with  that 
inward  work  would  surely  make  you  think  about 
Him  all  day  till  you  would  dream  about  Him  all 
night.  Do  you  ever  do  it  ?  Will  you  be  able  to 
say  to  Him  at  the  last  day,  *  Lord,  Thou  knowest 
that  I  often  thought  about  Thee  all  day  and  dreamed 
about  Thee  all  night,  and  told  my  husband  my 
dreams  about  Thee  in  the  morning.?'  Will  you 
have  as  much  as  Pilate's  heathen  wife  will  have 
to  say  for  herself  and  for  him  ?      Will  you ;  or 


140  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

will  you  not?      What  do  you  think?     What  do 
you  say  ? 

And  then,  this  will  be  openly  acknowledged  and 
admitted  in  the  day  of  judgment  that  Pilate'*s  wife 
was  fearlessly  true  and  faithful  to  all  her  light. 
Her  best  light  was  as  yet  but  candle-light.  It  was 
but  as  rush-light.  But,  even  candle-light,  even  rush- 
light, even  the  faintest  reflection  of  candle-light  or 
rush-light  is,  all  the  time,  the  very  same  light  as 
the  light  of  the  noonday  sun.  All  light  of  all  kinds 
comes,  in  one  way  or  another,  fi'om  one  and  the 
same  source.  And  the  lurid  light  of  Pilate's  wife's 
dream  that  night  all  came  to  her  and  to  him  from 
the  Light  of  the  world.  The  identical  same  Light 
that  is  lighting  you  and  me  with  such  brilliance  and 
beauty  in  this  house  to-night,  that  very  same  Light 
struggled  within  that  Roman  lady's  soul  on  her  bed 
and  in  her  dreams  in  Jerusalem  that  night.  And 
nothing  in  divine  things  is  more  sure  than  this, 
that  they  who  love  the  light — be  it  candle-light  or 
be  it  sun-light — shall  have  more  light  sent  to  them, 
till  they  have  all  the  light  that  they  need.  To  them 
their  path  shall  shine  more  and  more  to  the  perfect 
day.  They  who  love  the  light,  and  walk  in  what  light 
they  have,  they  shall  never  lie  down  in  darkness. 
You  may  absolutely  depend  upon  it  that  the  True 
Light  Himself,  who  stood  under  such  a  cloud  before 
Pilate's  bar  that  daybreak,  both  overheard  and  laid 
up  in  His  heart  the  noble  message  that  came  out  to 
the  procurator.  You  may  rely  on  it  that  He  who 
had  already  sent  her  so  much  of  His  own  light,  con- 
tinued to  send  her  more,  till  she  became  one  of 


PILATE'S  WIFE  141 

those  princess-saints  of  Caesar's  household,  whom 
Paul  so  saluted  in  long  after  days.  And  may  we  not 
hope  that  Pilate  himself  was  at  last  completely  won 
with  the  holy  walk  of  his  wife,  as  he  beheld  her 
chaste  conversation  coupled  with  fear  ? 


142 


BIBLE  CHARACTERS 


LXXXVI 
HEROD  THAT  FOX 

(ACOB  BEHMEN  says  that  a  man  is 
sometimes  like  a  wolf,  cruel  and  merci- 
less, and  with  an  insatiable  thirst  for 
blood;  sometimes  like  a  dog,  snappish, 
malicious,  envious,  grudging,  as  a  dog  is 
with  a  bone  that  he  cannot  himself  eat ;  sometimes 
like  a  serpent,  stinging  and  venomous,  slanderous  in 
his  words,  and  treacherous  in  his  actions ;  sometimes 
like  a  hare,  timorous  and  starting  off;  sometimes 
like  a  toad,  and  sometimes  like  a  fox,  and  so  on. 
The  Teutonic  philosopher  has  a  whole  incomparable 
chapter  on  "  The  Bestial  Manifestations  in  Man.*" 
"  My  dear  children  in  Chi'ist,"  he  proceeds,  "  my  sole 
purpose  in  writing  in  this  way  to  you  is  not  to  revile 
you  or  to  reproach  you  with  your  fallen  and 
bestialised  estate.  What  I  here  write  to  you  is  the 
simple  and  naked  and  open  truth.  I  am  as  certain 
as  I  live  that  it  is  the  truth  of  God,  because  I  have 
the  daily  experience  of  it  all  in  myself.  Every  day, 
and  every  hour  of  every  day,  I  have  the  bondage  of 
it  all,  and  the  shame  of  it  all,  and  the  degradation 
and  the  guilt  of  it  all,  in  myself,  and  not  in  another. 


HEROD  THAT  FOX  143 

And,  therefore,  your  embruted  estate  is  here  told 
you  not  to  exclude  any  of  you  from  the  hope  of 
salvation.  The  most  wolf-like  man  among  you,  the 
most  dog-like  man  among  you,  the  most  toad-Hke 
man  among  you,  the  most  fox-like  man  among  you 
— all  such  men  are  invited,  and,  indeed,  commanded, 
to  arise  every  moment  and  flee  from  themselves  into 
the  new  birth  in  God.  Ajid,  moreover,  it  was  for 
this  very  purpose  that  the  Son  of  God  was  mani- 
fested. It  was  to  turn  us  all  from  being  beasts  and 
devils  everlastingly,  and  to  make  us  all  with  Himself, 
the  new  and  bom-from-above  sons  and  daughters  of 
the  living  God.  Jesus  Christ,  the  very  Mouth  of 
Truth  Himself,  called  Herod  a  fox,  not  to  sentence 
him,  and  to  fix  him  for  ever  the  fox  that  he  was, 
but  it  was  in  order,  if  possible,  to  turn  him  from 
all  his  guiles,  and  all  his  lusts,  and  all  his  lies,  and 
to  make  him  even  yet  a  child  of  God,  and  an  heir 
of  everlasting  life."  So  writes  "the  illuminated 
Behmen""  in  his  Election  of  Grace. 

All  the  historians  and  all  the  biographers  of  that 
time,  both  sacred  and  profane,  agi-ee  about  Herod 
Antipas.  They  all  agree  that  Antipas  was  his 
father's  son  in  all  that  was  worst  in  his  father''s 
character.  Old  Herod,  with  all  his  brutalities  and 
with  all  his  devilries,  had  at  the  same  time  some  of 
the  possibilities  in  him  that  go  to  the  making  of 
a  great  man.  But  by  no  possibility  could  his  second 
son  ever  have  been  a  great  man.  Ajitipas  was  a 
weak,  cruel,  sensual,  ostentatious,  shallow-hearted 
creature.  He  is  known  to  the  readers  of  the  New 
Testament  first  as  the  dupe  of  a  bad  woman,  and 


144  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

then  as  the  murderer  of  John  the  Baptist,  and  then 
as  one  of  the  judges  of  Jesus  Christ.  He  was  that  fox 
who  tried  to  frighten  our  Lord  to  flee  from  His  work; 
and  at  last  he  was  that  puppet-king,  and  reprobate 
sinner,  to  whom  our  Lord  would  not  answer  one 
word.  His  licentious  life,  his  family  miseries,  his 
political  manoeuvres,  his  sycophantic  and  extravagant 
expenditures,  his  ruinous  defeats,  both  in  war  and 
in  diplomacy,  his  fall  from  his  throne,  and  his 
banishment  from  his  kingdom,  are  all  to  be  read 
in  the  books  of  Josephus,  who  is  an  author  alto- 
gether worthy  to  chronicle  the  deeds,  and  to  tell 
the  exploits,  of  such  a  hero.  Avoid  giving  of 
characters,  says  Butler  in  his  noble  sermon  on  "•  The 
Government  of  the  Tongue.""  At  the  same  time,  as 
Bengel  says,  the  truth  must  sometimes  be  spoken, 
and  must  sometimes  be  all  spoken.  Sometimes  a 
dog  must  be  branded  to  all  men  to  be  a  dog,  and  a 
serpent  advertised  to  be  a  serpent,  and  a  swine  to 
be  a  swine.  '  Go  back,"  said  our  Lord,  '  to  that  fox 
which  sent  you,  and  tell  him  what  I  have  said  about 
him:  tell  him  the  name  I  have  denounced  upon 
him.'  And  we  understand  and  accept  both  what 
our  Lord  and  His  two  servants  have  said  on  this 
subject  of  the  giving  of  characters.  It  is  a  large 
part  of  our  daily  lesson  and  discipline  and  duty  in 
this  life,  to  be  able  to  give  the  proper  characters, 
and  to  apply  the  proper  epithets,  to  men  and  to 
things ;  and  to  do  that  at  the  right  time  and  in  the 
right  temper.  It  is  a  large  and  an  important  part 
of  every  preacher's  office  especially,  to  apply  to 
all  men  and  to  all  their  actions  their  absolutely  and 


HEROD  THAT  FOX  145 

fearlessly  right  and  true  names.  To  track  out  the 
wolf,  and  the  serpent,  and  the  toad,  and  the  fox, 
in  the  men  in  whom  these  bestialities  dwell,  and 
to  warn  all  men  how  and  where  all  that  will  end ; 
no  minister  may  shrink  from  that.  All  the  vices 
and  all  the  crimes  of  the  tetrarch's  miserable  life, 
and  all  the  weakness  and  duplicity  of  his  contemp- 
tible character,  are  all  summed  up  and  sealed  down 
on  Herod  Antipas  in  that  one  divine  word  that 
day  :  "  That  fox.^' 

But  what  makes  Herod  Antipas  such  a  poignant 
lesson  to  us  is  not  that  he  was  a  fox,  it  is  this  rather, 
that  he  began  by  being  a  fox,  and  ended  by  being 
a  reprobate.  You  know  what  reprobation  is,  my 
brethren  ?  This  is  reprobation.  "  As  soon  as  Pilate 
knew  that  this  prisoner  belonged  to  Herod's  juris- 
diction, he  sent  Him  to  Herod,  who  was  in  Jerusalem 
at  that  time.  And  Herod  questioned  Jesus  with 
many  words,  but  He  answered  him  nothing."  That 
is  reprobation.  It  is  our  reprobation  begun  when 
God  answers  us  nothing.  When,  with  all  our 
praying,  and  with  all  our  reading,  and  with  all  our 
inquiring.  He  still  answers  us  nothing.  Herod's 
day  of  grace  had  lasted  long,  but  it  is  now  at  an 
end.  Herod  had  had  many  opportunities,  and 
at  one  time  he  was  almost  persuaded.  At  one 
time  he  was  not  very  far  from  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven.  But  all  that  is  long  past.  Herod  had 
smothered  and  silenced  his  conscience  long  ago,  and 
now  he  is  to  be  for  ever  let  alone.  Nay — and  let 
all  beginning  reprobates  attend  to  this — not  only 
was  Herod  let  alone,  but  when  he  put  many  eager 

K 


146  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

questions  to  our  Lord,  He  answered  him  notliing. 
It  is  here  that  the  real  horror  and  the  awful  fascina- 
tion to  me  of  all  Herod's  case  comes  in.  It  is  in  this : 
because  we  also  go  on  exactly  like  Herod,  cheating 
ourselves,  and  thinking,  poor  self-entrapped  foxes 
that  we  are,  that  we  are  all  the  time  mocking  God 
also,  till  it  is  too  late ;  for  God  is  not  to  be  mocked 
by  any  man.  David  has  drawn  out  this  solemnising 
lesson,  and  has  set  it  in  a  singularly  impressive 
Psalm  of  his,  and  in  never-to-be-forgotten  words : 
''  If  I  regard  iniquity  in  my  heart,  the  Lord  will  not 
hear  me."  Now,  it  was  just  because  this  lewd  and 
cruel  fox  had  so  defiantly,  and  so  flagrantly,  and  so 
criminally,  and  for  so  long,  regarded  the  greatest 
iniquity  in  his  heart  and  in  his  life,  that  now  at  last 
when  he  put  so  many  questions  to  our  Lord  He 
answered  him  nothing.  We  all  know  the  same 
thing  ourselves.  Fox-like,  Antipas-like,  Doth  God 
see  us  ?  we  say.  Surely  the  darkness  shall  cover  us, 
we  say.  Just  this  once  more,  we  say.  At  a  more 
convenient  time  I  will  reform  myself,  we  say.  We 
take  our  own  way  and  our  own  time,  and,  fox-like, 
we  have  many  tricks  in  our  eye  by  which  we  will 
escape  the  trap.  We  have  all  gone  on  in  that  way, 
till  these  words  of  reprobation — "  no  answer  '"* — de- 
scribe to  perfection  many  of  us  in  this  house  to-night. 
In  Herod  it  was  murder  and  incest,  never  repented 
of  and  never  forsaken,  that  so  absolutely  shut  our 
Lord's  mouth  toward  Herod  and  toward  all  his 
requests  and  all  his  questions.  There  are  no  con- 
troversies so  dark  and  so  terrible  between  God  and 
our  souls  as  the  murder  of  John  the  Baptist.     But 


HEROD  THAT  FOX  147 

God  may  be  as  silent  and  as  angry  at  all  our  prayers 
and  questions  and  casuistries  as  ever  He  was  at 
Herod's.  Nobody  would  believe,  but  those  of  us 
who  have  come  through  it,  the  little  things,  the 
trivial  things,  that  will  stop  God's  ear,  and  shut  His 
mouth,  and  make  Him  our  enemy.  Somewhat  too 
much  money  spent  on  ourselves,  and  somewhat  too 
little  spent  on  the  Church  of  Christ  and  on  His  poor 
will  do  it.  Too  little  time  and  strength  spent  in 
closet  and  intercessory  prayer  Avill  do  it.  A  secret 
ill-feeling  entertained  at  somebody  will  do  it.  A 
debt  not  paid  and  with  interest  will  do  it.  A  pre- 
judice nursed  and  not  surrendered  in  time  will  do 
it.  A  grudge  kept  up  will  do  it.  An  apology  not 
made  will  do  it.  A  too  long  and  a  too  free  tongue 
will  do  it.  An  impertinent  book,  and  the  time  and 
money  spent  upon  that  book  will  do  it.  A  second 
sleep  in  the  morning  more  than  is  necessary  will  do 
it.  A  pipeful  of  doubtful  tobacco  will  do  it.  A 
daily  glass  or  two  of  inexpedient  wine  will  do  it.  A 
knuckle  of  too-savoury  mutton  will  sometimes  do  it, 
as  Dr.  Jowett  was  wont  to  say.  Nobody  could  tell, 
nobody  who  has  not  himself  come  through  it  all 
could  imagine  or  could  believe  if  it  were  told  them, 
the  triviality,  and  the  absolute  immateriality,  of  the 
things  that  will  in  some  men's  cases  do  it.  God  has 
kept  up  a  life-long  controversy  with  some  of  His 
saints  about  little  things  that  they  could  not  put 
words  upon,  so  unlike  Almighty  God  and  so  beneath 
Him,  as  one  would  say,  is  the  whole  dispute.  The 
truth  is,  when  Almighty  God  is  bent  upon  the 
absolute  sanctification  of  some  elect  sinner,  no  auto- 


148  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

biography,  no  Brea,no  Reliquice,  no  Grace  Abounding, 
no  amount  of  imaginative  genius  and  a  corresponding 
style,  could  possibly  convey  to  another  man  all  the 
controversies,  great  and  small,  that  all  through  his 
life  go  on  between  God  and  that  elect  sinner's  soul. 
There  are  some  terribly  predestinated  saints.  There 
are  some  elections  that  almost  consume  those  chosen 
souls  to  dust  and  ashes  in  the  awful  furnace  of  their 
sanctification.  The  apostle  had  this  same  terrible 
election,  and  sin-consuming  ambition,  for  his  Thessa- 
lonian  converts.  "And  the  very  God  of  peace  sanctify 
you  wholly:  and  I  pray  God  your  whole  spirit, 
and  soul,  and  body  be  preserved  blameless  unto  the 
cominsr  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  You  have  it  all 
there.  It  is  as  much  as  to  say,  the  very  God  of 
peace  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  your  most  importunate  and 
agonising  prayers,  as  long  as  there  is  a  single  speck 
of  sin  secretly  staining  any  part  of  your  soul.  The 
very  God  of  peace  crucify  every  remaining  lust  in  your 
body,  and  every  remaining  affection  in  your  spirit, 
and  every  remaining  thought,  and  feeling,  and  pas- 
sion, in  your  soul,  till  you  are  absolutely  blameless  in 
His  consumingly  holy  sight.  The  very  God  of  peace 
empty  you  from  vessel  to  vessel,  and  prune  you  to 
the  quivering  quick,  and  keep  you  in  a  sevenfold- 
fire,  till  the  coming  of  the  Great  Refiner  in  the  glory 
of  His  Father.  And,  in  like  manner,  the  very  God 
of  peace  demands  of  you  also  every  moment  of  your 
time,  and  every  mite  of  your  money,  and  every  word 
of  your  mouth,  and  every  beat  of  your  heart.  And 
not  till  He  gets  all  that  from  you  will  He  answer 
you  one  word ;  no,  not  for  all  your  prayers,  and  all 


HEROD  THAT  FOX  149 

your  sweats,  and  all  your  tears.  It  is  not  lawful 
for  a  child  of  God  to  have  it,  He  will  say,  till  He 
will  make  your  disobedient  life  a  burden  to  you 
past  bearing,  a  racking  torture,  and  one  long  agony. 
No !  He  denies  you,  till  you  can  hear  nothing  in  all 
your  conscience  but  these  angry  words  with  you. 
No  !  it  is  not  lawful  for  you.  It  is  not  right.  It 
is  not  safe.  It  is  not  seemly.  It  is  not  expedient. 
It  may  be  for  others,  but  it  can  never  now  be  for 
you.  And  as  long  as  God  in  your  conscience  says 
that  to  you  about  anything  whatsoever,  you  may 
debate,  and  question,  and  pray,  and  seek  for  marks 
and  evidences  till  your  dying  day,  but  the  very  God 
of  peace  will  answer  you  nothing. 

And  then  there  is  this  complication  also  :  there 
are  things  that  it  is  not  lawful  for  one  man  to  do, 
that  his  very  next-door  neighbour  may  do  every 
day,  and  walk  with  God  and  talk  with  God  all  the 
time.  There  are  things  that  are  unpardonable  in 
the  sight  of  God  in  one  man,  but  which  are  not  only 
entirely  innocent  and  inoffensive,  but  are  positively 
virtuous  and  praiseworthy  in  another  man.  There 
are  things  that  will  be  the  ruin  of  one  man's  soul, 
that  may  all  the  time  be  the  very  sweetness  and 
strength  of  his  neighbour's  soul.  I  may  have  to 
deny  myself,  on  the  pain  of  reprobation,  every  day, 
what  you  may  eat  and  drink  every  day  and  ask  a 
blessing  on  it.  I  may  have  to  spend  all  the  rest  of 
my  redeemed  life  in  this  world  in  a  daily  battle  and 
a  nightly  self-examination  against  habits  of  body 
and  mind  that  you  cannot  so  much  as  imagine.  I 
may  have  to  sit  up  at  my  salvation  every  night  of  the 


150  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

week,  while  you  are  sleeping  like  an  innocent  child. 
I  may  have  to  meditate  on  David's  Psalms  continu- 
ally, and  on  nothing  else  any  more,  while  you  are 
doing  nothing  else  all  your  time  and  thought  but 
either  telling  or  hearing  some  new  thing.  I  may 
have,  till  the  day  of  my  death,  to  fight  against  a 
slavery  that  makes  you,  in  your  lush  liberty,  say 
that  I  am  beside  myself.  I  may  have  iniquities  in 
my  heart  absolutely  shipwrecking  all  my  prayers : 
iniquities  that  even  David  in  his  very  best  Psalms 
knew  nothing  about :  iniquities  that  did  not  even 
exist  in  David's  day,  because  the  Holy  Ghost  was 
not  yet  given.  So  beset  behind  and  before  are 
some  New  Testament  men,  and  some  men  far  on  in 
the  life  of  grace,  that  God  scarcely  ever  answers 
them  one  word  from  one  year's  end  to  another. 
Then  king  Herod  questioned  with  Jesus  in  many 
words  ;  but  He  answered  him  nothing.  But,  sings 
David,  verily  God  hath  heard  me.  He  hath 
attended  to  the  voice  of  my  prayer. 


THE  PENITENT  THIEF  151 


LXXXVIl 

THE   PENITENT  THIEF 

HE  two  malefactors  who  were  crucified 
with  Christ  had  been  ringleaders  in 
Barabbas's  robber  band.  And  had 
Barabbas  himself  not  been  pardoned 
by  Pilate  that  morning,  he  also  would 
have  carried  his  cross  out  to  Calvary  that  day  and 
would  have  been  crucified  upon  it.  But  when  Bar- 
abbas and  his  band  are  called  thieves  and  robbers  it 
is  but  due  to  them  to  give  them  the  benefit  of  the 
doubt.  In  our  noble  British  law  and  administra- 
tion there  is  a  deep  and  a  fundamental  distinction 
taken  between  ordinary  criminals  against  all  civilised 
society,  and  political  criminals  against  this  or  that 
foreign  government  for  the  time.  We  give  up 
swindlers  and  murderers  when  they  flee  to  our  shores, 
but  we  provide  a  safe  and  an  honourable  asylum  for 
political  refugees  and  state  criminals,  as  we  call 
them.  Now  all  the  chances  are  that  Barabbas  and 
his  band  had  begun  simply  by  being  rebels  against 
Rome,  as,  indeed,  all  the  Jews  were  everywhere  in 
their  hearts.  Though  no  doubt  their  repudiated, 
outlawed,  exasperated,  and  hunted-down  lives  had 
by  degrees  made  Barabbas  and  his  band  desperate 


152  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

and  reckless,  till  they  had  become  in  many  case§ 
pure  thieves  and  robbers.  David  in  the  cave  of 
Adullam  is  not  a  bad  picture  of  Barabbas  at  the 
beginning  of  his  life  of  outlawry.  For  every  one 
that  was  in  distress  came  to  David,  and  every  one 
that  was  in  debt,  and  every  one  that  was  discon- 
tented, and  he  became  a  captain  over  them  ;  and 
there  were  with  David  about  four  hundred  men. 
Only,  no  doubt,  David  was  a  far  better  captain 
than  Barabbas  ever  was.  David,  no  doubt,  kept  his 
men  in  far  better  hand,  till  he  turned  them  out 
such  splendid  specimens  of  soldiers  and  mighty 
men  of  war,  and  the  best  law-abiding  citizens  in  all 
Israel.  But  David  had  only  Saul  to  overthrow, 
whereas  Barabbas  had  Caesar. 

The  Evangelist  Luke  had  perfect  understanding 
of  all  things  from  the  very  first.  And  no  doubt  he 
knew  all  about  the  early  life  of  Barabbas  and  his 
band.  And  especially,  I  feel  sure,  he  would  make 
every  possible  inquiry  concerning  the  early  days  of 
this  remarkable  man  who  is  discovered  to  us  in  this 
Gospel  as  the  penitent  thief.  But  it  would  have 
been  out  of  place  in  Luke  to  have  gone  into  this 
man's  whole  past  life  at  the  moment  when  he  is 
fixing  all  our  eyes  on  the  crucifixion  of  our  Lord. 
At  the  same  time,  it  is  as  clear  as  daylight  to  me 
that  this  is  not  the  first  time  that  this  crucified 
thief  has  seen  our  Lord.  He  knew  both  our  Lord's 
life  and  teaching  and  character  quite  well,  though 
he  had  cast  it  all  behind  his  back  all  his  days  up 
till  now.  He  knew  that  our  Lord  had  done  nothing 
amiss  all  the  time  that  he  and  his  companions  were 


THE  PENITENT  THIEF  153 

fast  ripening  for  the  due  reward  of  their  deeds. 
There  was  not  a  Sabbath  synagogue,  nor  a  passover 
journey,  nor  a  carpenter''s  shop,  nor  a  tax -gatherer's 
booth,  nor  a  robber's  cave  in  all  Israel  where  the 
name,  and  the  teaching,  and  the  mighty  works  of 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  were  not  constantly  discussed, 
and  debated,  and  divided  on.  And  Barabbas  and 
his  band  must  have  had  many  a  deliberation  in  their 
banishment  about  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  Is  He  indeed 
the  promised  Messiah  ?  Is  He  really  David's  Son  ? 
Is  this  really  He  who  is  to  overcome  and  cast  out 
Caesar?  If  it  is,  we  shall  join  His  standard  immedi- 
ately, and  He  will  remember  us  when  He  comes  into 
His  kingdom.  Week  after  week,  month  after  month, 
year  after  year,  this  went  on  till  their  hearts  became 
sick  and  desperate  within  them.  A  hundred  times 
Barabbas  and  this  one  and  that  one  of  his  band  had 
disguised  themselves  as  fishermen  and  shepherds  to 
come  down  to  hear  our  Lord  preach  and  to  see  the 
mighty  works  that  He  did.  Nay,  for  anything  we 
know,  this  man  may  at  one  time  have  been  one  of 
our  Lord's  disciples,  quite  as  well  as  Simon  Zelotes 
and  Judas  Iscariot.  In  his  early,  and  enthusiastic,  and 
patriotic  days  he  may  have  been  one  of  John's  dis- 
ciples. He  may  have  seen  Jesus  of  Nazareth  baptized 
that  day.  He  may  have  been  baptized  himself  that 
day.  He  may  have  heard  the  Baptist  say  :  "  Behold 
the  Lamb  of  God  ! "  He  may  have  been  among  the 
multitude  who  sat  and  heard  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount.  He  may  actually  have  closely  companied 
with  our  Lord  for  a  season.  Till  he  was  at  last  one 
of  those  who  went  back  and  walked  no  more  with 


154  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

Him,  because  our  Lord  would  not  be  taken  by  them 
and  made  a  king.  But,  go  back  to  Barabbas''s  band 
as  he  did,  I  defy  him  ever  to  forget  what  he  had 
seen  and  heard  down  among  the  cities,  and  the 
villages,  and  the  mountain-sides,  and  the  supper- 
tables  of  Galilee  and  Jewry.  This  man,  and  many 
more  like  him,  went  back  to  their  farm,  and  to  their 
merchandise,  and  to  their  toll-booth,  and  to  their 
robber-cave,  but  they  took  with  them  memories,  and 
visions,  and  hearts,  and  consciences,  they  could  never 
forget.  As  we  see  was  the  case  conspicuously  with 
this  thief  on  the  cross. 

And  all  this  went  on:  our  Lord  finishing  the 
work  His  Father  had  given  Him  to  do,  while 
Barabbas  and  his  band  were  fast  ripening  for  their 
cross;  till,  as  God  would  have  it,  our  Lord  and 
Barabbas,  with  these  two  of  his  band,  were  all  taken 
and  tried,  and  were  sentenced  to  be  crucified  all 
four  on  the  same  passover  morning.  Now,  when 
a  man  is  on  his  way  out  to  his  own  execution  he 
would  be  more  than  a  man  if  he  paid  much  atten- 
tion, to  the  circumstances  attending  the  execution 
of  his  neighbours.  At  the  same  time,  this  thief 
was  no  ordinary  man.  '  This  is  Jesus  of  Nazareth,' 
he  would  say  to  himself.  '  This  is  the  carpenter- 
prophet  I  used  to  steal  into  His  presence  to  hear 
Him  preach.  I  once  thought  to  be  one  of  His 
men  myself  to  deliver  Israel.'  And  then  as  men 
among  ourselves  do  on  the  morning  of  their  execu- 
tion, the  psalms  and  hymns  of  his  boyhood  came 
back  into  his  mind.  Till  he  did  not  hear  the 
mockery  and  the  insults  of  the  people  who  filled 


THE  PENITENT  THIEF  155 

the  streets  as  he  went  on  and  said  to  himself: 
"Remember  not  the  sins  of  my  youth,  nor  my 
transgressions.  For  thou  writest  bitter  things 
against  me,  and  makest  me  to  possess  the  iniqui- 
ties of  my  youth.  Thou  puttest  my  feet  also  in 
the  stocks,  and  lookest  narrowly  unto  all  my  paths ; 
thou  settest  a  print  upon  the  heels  of  my  feet. 
We  lie  down  in  our  shame,  and  our  confusion 
covereth  us ;  for  we  have  sinned  against  the  Lord 
our  God ;  we  and  our  fathers,  from  our  youth  even 
unto  this  day,  and  have  not  obeyed  the  voice  of 
the  Lord  our  God."  Till,  by  that  time,  the  terrible 
procession  had  got  to  Golgotha.  And  all  the  way, 
as  already  in  the  high  priest's  palace,  and  in  the 
Praetorium,  and  now  at  Golgotha,  all  hell  was  let 
loose  as  never  before  nor  since.  And  Satan  entered 
into  the  two  thieves,  and  into  this  thief  also.  And 
no  wonder  that  they  both  cursed  and  blasphemed 
and  raved  and  gnashed  their  teeth  and  spat  upon 
their  crucifiers,  as  all  crucified  men  always  did,  so 
insupportable  to  absolute  insanity  was  the  awful 
torture  of  crucifixion.  And  all  the  time  God  was 
laying  on  His  Son  the  iniquity  of  us  all,  and  all 
the  time  He  was  dumb,  and  opened  not  His  mouth. 
"  Save  Thyself  and  us ! "  the  two  crucified  and 
maddened  men  both  cried  to  Him ;  the  one  in 
fiendish  ribaldry,  and  the  other  out  of  a  heart  in 
which  heaven  and  hell  were  fighting  with  their  last 
stroke  for  his  soul.  Till  this  one  of  the  two  thieves 
at  last  came  to  himself.  And  the  thing  that  made 
him  come  to  himself  was  this :  Our  Lord  had 
never  opened  His  mouth.     He  had  neither  cursed, 


156  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

nor  gnashed  His  teeth,  nor  spat  at  His  crucifiers  and 
revilers.  But,  at  last,  He  also  spoke.  And  it  was 
the  same  voice — the  thief  had  never  heard  another 
voice  in  all  the  world  to  compare  with  it !  For, 
looking  up  into  the  fast-darkening  heavens,  our  Lord 
exclaimed,  "Father,  forgive  them;  for  they  know 
not  what  they  do."  That  benediction  of  our  blessed 
Lord  did  more  to  benumb  the  agony  of  body  and 
mind  in  this  thief  than  all  the  wine  mingled  with 
myrrh  the  women  of  Jerusalem  had  made  for  him 
and  for  his  fellows  to  drink  that  morning.  "  Father, 
forgive  them  ! " — it  absolutely  broke  the  thief  s  hard 
heart  to  hear  it.  And  as  his  hardened  companion 
still  reviled  our  Lord  hanging  beside  him,  the  now 
penitent  thief  looked  across  and  said  to  his  old 
companion  and  fellow-malefactor  the  words  that  all 
the  world  knows. 

John  Donne,  in  a  Lent  sermon  that  he  preached 
at  Whitehall,  dwells  on  what  he  calls  "The  de- 
spatch of  the  grace  of  God  in  the  case  of  the 
penitent  thief."  The  per  saltvm  character  of  the 
thiefs  repentance  and  faith,  and  the  full  and  im- 
mediate response  of  our  Lord  to  his  so-sudden 
repentance  and  faith,  make  a  fine  sermon.  The 
kingdom  of  heaven  suffered  violence  that  day  at 
this  thief's  so  suddenly  repentant  and  so  believing 
hands.  He  took  heaven,  so  to  speak,  at  a  leap 
that  day.  The  swiftness  of  the  thief's  repentance, 
and  faith,  and  confession,  and  pardon,  and  sanctifi- 
cation,  and  glorification,  is  something  very  blessed 
for  us  all  to  think  about,  and  never  to  forget ;  and, 
especially,  those  of  us  who  must  make  haste  and 


THE  PENITENT  THIEF  15  7 

lose  no  more  time  if  we  are  to  be  for  ever  with  him 
and  with  his  Lord  in  Paradise.  Let  all  old  and 
fast-dying  men  have  this  written  up,  like  Augus- 
tine, on  the  wall  over  against  their  bed — "  There  is 
life  in  a  look  at  the  crucified  One.''  For  we  may 
not  have  time  nor  strength  for  more  than  just  one 
such  look  of  despatch. 

And,  then,  if  you  would  see  the  most  wonderful 
believer  this  world  has  ever  seen,  come  to  the  cross 
of  Christ,  and  to  that  cross  beside  it,  and  look  at 
the  penitent  thief.  He  was  a  greater  believer  than 
Abraham,  the  father  of  believers.  Greater  than 
David.  Greater  than  Isaiah.  While  Peter,  and 
James,  and  John,  with  all  their  privileges  and 
opportunities,  are  not  worthy  to  be  named  in  the 
same  day  with  this  thief.  For  they  had  all  for- 
saken their  Saviour  that  awful  day  and  had  fled 
from  Him.  It  was  of  the  thief,  and  of  his  alone 
and  so  transcendent  faith,  that  our  Lord  spoke  in 
such  praise  and  in  such  reproof  to  Thomas  eight 
days  afterwards,  and  said,  '  Blessed  is  he  in  heaven 
with  Me  this  day,  who  saw  nothing  but  shame,  and 
defeat,  and  death  in  Me,  and  yet  so  believed  in  Me, 
and  so  cheered  Me  that  day.'  For  our  Lord  never, 
all  His  life,  got  such  a  surprise  and  such  a  delight 
as  He  got  on  the  cross  that  day, — not  from  Peter, 
not  from  the  Syrophoenician  woman,  not  from  the 
centurion,  not  from  Mary  Magdalene,  as  He  got 
on  His  cross  that  morning  from  the  thief  who  hung 
beside  Him.  There  was  nothing,  after  His  Father's 
presence  with  Him,  that  held  our  Lord's  heart 
up  all  His   life   on   earth  like   faith   on   Him   in 


158  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

any  sinner'^s  heart.  And  now  that  His  Father  also 
has  forsaken  Him;  now  that  He  is  so  absolutely 
deserted  and  so  awfully  alone;  it  is  this  thief s 
faith,  and  love,  and  hope  that  is  such  a  cup  of 
cold  water  to  our  Lord's  fast-sinking  heart.  All 
faith  and  all  hope  on  Christ  were  as  dead  as  a 
stone  in  Peter*'s  heart  and  in  John'*s  heart.  Mary 
Magdalene  herself,  with  all  her  love,  had  given 
Him  up  as  for  ever  dead.  But  not  the  thief.  It 
was  at  the  very  darkest  hour  this  world  has  ever 
seen,  or  ever  will  see,  that  this  thief  s  splendid  faith 
flashed  up  brighter  than  the  mid-day  sun  that 
day.  Some  say  that  Paul  will  sit  next  to  Christ 
in  Paradise.  I  cannot  but  think  that  Paul  will 
insist  on  giving  place  to  this  very  prince  and 
leader  of  all  New  Testament  believers.  Anybody 
could  have  believed  and  laboured  all  their  days 
after  being  caught  up  into  the  third  heaven,  and 
after  seeing  Christ  sitting  there  in  all  His  glory. 
But  Christ  was  still  on  His  cross,  and  His  glory 
was  as  black  as  midnight,  when  all  the  faith  of  the 
church  of  God  found  its  last  retreat  and  sure  fast- 
ness and  high  tower  in  the  thief  s  unconquerable 
and  inextinguishable  heart.  Paul  deserves  a  high 
seat  in  heaven,  and  he  will  get  all  that  he  deserves, 
and  more.  But  the  penitent  thief  could  say,  "  I  am 
crucified  with  Christ"  in  a  sense  that  even  Paul 
could  not  say  that.  And  however  high  the  thief  s 
throne  in  heaven  is,  the  whole  church  of  angels 
and  saints  will  acclaim  that  he  is  worthy.  Well 
done!  O  greatest  and  bravest-hearted  of  all  be- 
lievers !     Well  done ! 


THOMAS  159 


•         LXXXVIII 

THOMAS 

HE  character  of  Thomas  is  an  anatomy 
of  melancholy.  If  "  to  say  man  is  to 
say  melancholy,"  then  to  say  Thomas, 
called  Didymus,  is  to  say  religious 
melancholy.  Peter  was  of  such  an 
ardent  and  enthusiastical  temperament  that  he  was 
always  speaking,  whereas  Thomas  was  too  great  a 
melancholian  to  speak  much,  and  when  he  ever  did 
speak  it  was  always  out  of  the  depths  of  his 
hypochondriacal  heart. 

It  was  already  the  last  week  of  his  Master's  life 
before  we  have  Thomas  so  much  as  once  opening 
his  mouth.  And  the  occasion  of  his  first  melan- 
choly utterance  was  this  :  Lazarus  was  sick  unto 
death  in  Bethany.  And  when  Jesus  heard  that 
His  friend  was  so  sick,  He  said  to  His  disciples,  "Let 
us  go  into  Judea  again.'"*  "  Master,"  they  answered, 
"  the  Jews  of  late  have  been  seeking  opportunity  to 
stone  Thee  to  death,  and  goest  Thou  thither  again  ?  " 
And  it  was  when  Thomas  saw  that  his  Master  was 
walking  straight  into  the  jaws  of  certain  destruc- 
tion that  he  said,  in  sad  abandonment  of  all  his 
remaining  hope,  "  Let  us  also  go,  that  we  may  die 


160  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

with  Him."^  Thomas  felt  sure  in  his  foreboding 
heart  that  his  Master  would  never  leave  Judea 
alive ;  Thomas  loved  his  Master  more  than  life,  and 
therefore  he  determined  to  die  with  Him.  And, 
indeed,  that  determination  was  not  very  difficult 
for  Thomas  to  take.  Life  had  not  yielded  much 
to  Thomas.  And  its  best  promises,  more  and  more 
delayed,  and  more  and  more  deluding  him,  were 
taking  less  and  less  hold  of  Thomas's  heart  as  the 
years  went  on.  We  see  now  that  the  disciples  of 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  had  the  very  best  cause  for  high 
hope  and  full  assurance.  But  at  that  time,  and 
especially  that  week,  Thomas  had  only  too  good 
ground  for  all  his  anxiety,  and  despondency,  and 
melancholy.  And  a  whole  lifetime  of  melancholy, 
constitutional  and  circumstantial,  had  by  this  time 
settled  down  on  Thomas,  and" "had  taken  absolute 
and  tyrannical  possession  of  him.  The  disciples 
were  all  sick  at  heart  with  hope  deferred  ;  as  also 
with  the  terrible  questionings  that  would  some- 
times arise  in  their  hearts,  and  would  not  be 
silenced;  all  kinds  of  questionings  about  their 
more  and  more  mysterious  Master;  and  about 
His  more  and  more  mysterious,  and  more  and 
more  stumbling,  sayings,  both  about  Himself  and 
about  themselves.  And  then  His  certainly  im- 
pending death,  and  the  unaccountable  delay  and 
disappearance  of  His  promised  kingdom  :  all  that 
doubt,  and  fear,  and  despondency,  and  despair,  met 
in  Thomas's  melancholy  heart  till  it  all  took  abso- 
lute possession  of  him.  And  till  he  sometimes  said 
to  himself  that  it  would  be  the  best  thing  that 


THOMAS  161 

could  happen  to  him  if  he  could  but  die  at  once 
and  be  done  for  ever  with  all  these  difficulties  and 
delays  and  bitter  and  unbearable  disappointments. 
The  discipleship-life,  at  its  very  best,  had  never  been 
very  satisfying  to  Thomas's  heart ;  and,  of  late,  it 
had  been  becoming  absolutely  unbearable  to  this 
melancholy  and  morose  man.  "  Let  us  go,"**  he  said, 
"  that  we  may  die  with  Him." 

The  next  time  that  Thomas  speaks  is  when  Jesus 
and  His  disciples  are  still  in  the  upper  room  where 
the  last  passover  had  just  been  celebrated  and  the 
Lord*'s  Supper  instituted.  "  In  My  Father's  house 
are  many  mansions :  I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for 
you.  And  whither  I  go  ye  know,  and  the  way 
ye  know."  The  other  disciples  may  know  whither 
their  Master  is  going,  and  they  may  know  the  way, 
but  Thomas  knows  neither.  The  other  disciples, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  know  quite  as  little,  and  even 
less,  about  this  whole  matter  than  Thomas  knows : 
only  they  think  they  know,  when  they  do  not:  they 
have  not  knowledge  enough  to  know  that  they 
know  nothing.  '  His  Father's  house  ? '  said  Thomas 
to  himself.  ^What  does  He  mean.?  Why  does 
He  not  speak  plainly  ? '  Thomas  must  understand 
his  Master's  meaning.  Thomas  is  one  of  those 
unhappy  men  who  cannot  be  put  off  with  mere 
words.  Thomas  must  see  to  the  bottom  before 
he  can  pretend  to  believe.  Thomas  was  the  first 
of  those  disciples,  and  a  primate  among  them,  in 
whose  restless  minds 

doubt. 
Like  a  shoot,  springs  round  the  stock  of  truth. 
L 


162  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

At  the  same  time,  Thomas  in  his  melancholy 
candour  and  saddened  plainness  of  speech  was  but 
ministering  an  opportunity  to  his  Master  to  utter 
one  of  His  most  golden  oracles.  Jesus  saith  unto 
Thomas,  "  I  am  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life : 
no  man  cometh  unto  the  Father  but  by  Me/"* 
We  cannot  much  regret  that  restless  and  realistic 
melancholy  of  Thomas  since  it  has  procured  for  us 
such  a  satisfying  and  ennobling  utterance  as  that. 
"  All  His  disciples  minister  to  Him,*"  says  Newman ; 
"and  as  in  other  ways,  so  also  in  giving  occasion 
for  the  words  of  grace  which  proceed  from  His 
mouth."" 

Ten  days  pass.  But  what  days !  The  betrayal, 
the  arrest,  the  trial,  the  crucifixion,  the  burial,  and 
the  resurrection  of  Thomas's  Master.  What  days 
and  nights  of  trial,  and  that  not  for  faith  and  hope 
only,  but  for  reason  herself  to  keep  her  seat !  All 
the  faith  and  all  the  trust  of  the  disciples  have  not 
only  fallen  into  a  deep  doubt  during  those  terrible 
days  and  nights :  all  their  faith  and  all  their  trust 
have  been  actually  crucified  and  laid  dead  and 
buried,  and  that  without  a  spark  of  hope.  For  as 
yet  the  disciples  knew  not  the  Scripture,  that  their 
Master  must  rise  again  from  the  dead.  "  Then  the 
same  day  at  evening,  being  the  first  day  of  the 
week,  came  Jesus  and  stood  in  the  midst,  and  saith 
unto  them,  Peace  be  unto  you.  And  when  He  had 
so  said.  He  showed  them  His  hands  and  His  side. 
Then  were  the  disciples  glad  when  they  saw  the 
Lord."  But  Thomas  was  not  with  them  when  Jesus 
came.     Where  was  Thomas  that  glorious  Sabbath 


THOMAS  163 

evening?  Why  was  he  not  with  the  rest?  How 
shall  we  account  for  the  absence  of  Thomas?  It 
could  not  have  been  by  accident.  He  must  have 
been  told  that  the  ten  astounded,  overwhelmed,  and 
enraptured  disciples  were  to  be  all  together  that 
wonderful  night ;  astounded,  overwhelmed,  and 
enraptured  with  the  events  of  the  morning.  What 
conceivable  cause,  then,  could  have  kept  Thomas 
away  ?  Whatever  it  was  that  kept  Thomas  away, 
he  was  terribly  punished  for  his  absence.  For  he 
thereby  lost  the  first  and  best  sight  of  his  risen 
Master,  and  His  first  and  best  benediction  of  peace. 
He  not  only  lost  that  benediction,  but  the  joy  of 
the  other  disciples  who  had  received  it  filled  the 
cup  of  Thomas'^s  misery  full.  The  first  appearance 
of  their  risen  Master,  that  had  lifted  all  the  other 
disciples  up  to  heaven,  was  the  last  blow  to  cast 
Thomas  down  to  hell.  The  darkness,  the  bitter- 
ness, the  sullenness,  the  pride,  that  had  its  seat  so 
deep  down  in  Thomas's  heart,  all  burst  out  in  the 
presence  of  his  brethren''s  joy.  Thomas  would  have 
none  of  their  joy.  Thomas  would  not  believe  it. 
They  were  dreaming.  They  were  deluded.  They 
were  mad.  And  the  pride,  and  jealousy,  and  bitter- 
ness of  his  heart,  all  drove  Thomas  into  a  deeper  rage 
and  a  deeper  rebellion.  "  Except  I  shall  see  in  His 
hands  the  print  of  the  nails,  and  put  my  finger 
into  the  print  of  the  nails,  and  thrust  my  hand  into 
His  side,  I  will  not  believe."  We  all  understand 
Thomas''s  misery.  We  have  all  been  possessed  by 
it.  It  is  the  jealousy  and  the  rage  of  a  guilty 
conscience.     It  is   the  jealousy  and  the  rage  of  a 


164  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

disappointed  and  a  revengeful  heart.  When  any 
good  comes  to  others  that  we  should  have  been 
sharers  in,  when  we  are  absent  through  our  own 
fault,  and  when  those  who  were  present  come  to 
tell  us  about  all  that  we  have  lost,  we  have  all 
been  like  Thomas.  We  said,  I  do  not  believe  it. 
It  was  not  all  that  you  say  it  was.  You  are  exalt- 
ing yourselves  over  me.  You  are  boasting  your- 
selves beyond  the  truth.  And  if  the  truth  cannot 
be  hid  from  us,  or  denied  by  us,  we  hate  them,  and 
the  thing  we  have  lost,  all  the  more.  Thomas  is 
told  us  for  our  learning.  We  see  ourselves  in 
Thomas  as  in  a  glass.  Thomas,  in  all  his  melan- 
choly and  resentment,  is  ourselves.  ,  Unbelief,  and 
obstinacy,  and  loss  of  opportunity,  and  then  in- 
creased unbelief,  is  no  strange  thing  to  ourselves. 

And  after  eight  days  the  disciples  were  again 
within,  and  this  time  Thomas  was  with  them.  It 
had  taken  the  disciples  all  their  might  all  these 
eight  days  to  prevail  with  and  to  persuade  Thomas. 
And  all  of  us  who  know  what  it  is  to  wage  a  war 
with  our  own  wounded  pride,  and  with  nothing  but 
our  own  sullenness,  and  stubbornness,  and  mulish- 
ness  to  oppose  to  the  pleadings  of  truth  and  love, 
we  know  something  of  what  Thomas  came  through 
before  he  consented  to  accompany  the  other  disciples 
to  the  upper  room  at  the  end  of  those  eight  days. 
"Then  came  Jesus,  the  doors  being  shut,  and  stood 
in  the  midst,  and  said,  Peace  be  unto  you.  Then 
saith  He  to  Thomas,  Reach  hither  thy  finger,  and 
behold  My  hands ;  and  reach  hither  thy  hand  and 
thrust  it  into  My  side,  and  be  not  faithless  but 


THOMAS  165 

believing."  How  Thomas  would  hate  himself  when 
his  own  scornful,  unbelieving,  contemptuous  words 
came  back  to  him  from  his  Master's  gracious  lips ! 
How  utterly  odious  his  own  words  would  sound  as 
his  Master  repeated  them.  And  worst  of  all  whtn 
his  risen  Master  humbled  Himself  to  meet  Thomas's 
unbelieving  words  and  to  satisfy  them !  Thomas 
would  have  killed  himself  with  shame  and  self- 
condemnation,  had  it  not  been  given  him  at  that 
grandest  moment  of  his  whole  life  to  say,  "  My  Lord 
and  my  God ! "  Jesus  saith  unto  him,  "  Thomas,  be- 
cause thou  hast  seen  Me,  thou  hast  believed ;  blessed 
are  they  that  have  not  seen,  and  yet  have  believed  ! " 
Now,  my  brethren,  do  you  clearly  understand  and 
accept  this  peculiar  blessedness  of  believing  without 
seeing?  Do  you  clearly  see  and  fully  accept  the 
blessedness  of  a  strong  and  an  easy  acting  faith  in  the 
things  of  Christ  ?  Faith  is  always  easy  where  love  i 
and  hope  are  strong.  What  we  live  for  and  hope  ; 
to  see,  what  we  love  with  our  whole  heart,  what  we 
pray  for  night  and  day,  what  our  whole  future  is  /^  '^  /^^; 
anchored  upon,  that  we  easily  believe,  that  we  are 
ready  to  welcome.  In  that  case  our  faith  is  to  us 
nothing  less  than  the  substance  of  the  thing  hoped 
for;  it  is  the  evidence  of  the  thing  not  seen  as  yet. 
What  with  Thomas's  temperament  of  melancholy  ; 
what  with  his  not  having  hid  in  his  heart  the  things 
that  our  Lord  had  so  often  said  about  His  coming 
death  for  sin  and  His  resurrection  for  salvation; 
and  then  his  hot  jealousy  and  ill-will  at  the  joyful 
news  of  the  disciples ;  with  all  that  Thomas's  heart 
was  in  a  state  most  deadly  to  faith.    Had  Thomas's 


166  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

heart  been  tender,  had  he  had  seven  devils  cast  out 
of  his  heart  like  Mary  Magdalene,  he  also  would 
have  gone  out  to  the  sepulchre  while  it  was  yet 
dark,  and  would  have  been  the  first  of  all  the  dis- 
ciples to  see  his  risen  Lord.  But,  as  it  was,  he 
was  the  last  to  see  Him,  and  ran  a  close  risk  of 
never  seeing  Him  in  this  world.  Now,  how  is  it 
with  you  in  this  same  matter  ?  Are  you  hard  to 
convince  ?  Are  you  slow  of  faith  ?  Is  your  heart 
so  set  upon  this  world  that  you  have  no  eyes  or 
ears  for  the  world  to  come  ?  Are  you  able  to  dis- 
pense with  Jesus  Christ  day  after  day  till  He  dies 
out  of  your  heart,  and  imagination,  and  whole  life, 
altogether  ?  Unbelief  grows  by  what  it  feeds  upon, 
just  like  faith  and  love.  To  him  who  has  no  faith 
in  God,  in  Christ,  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  in  the 
unseen  world,  and  in  the  world  to  come,  from  him 
is  even  taken  away  the  little  faith  that  he  had,  till 
he  has  none  at  all.  You  know  men  in  whom  that 
awful  catastrophe  has  taken  place.  You  know  it, 
in  measure,  in  yourself.  Your  faith  is  all  but  dead. 
You  do  not  wait  for  Chrisf's  coming,  either  to  judge 
the  world,  or  to  take  you  to  Himself,  or  to  sanctify 
you,  and  comfort  you,  and  answer  your  prayers. 
And  then  you  are  uneasy,  and  unhappy,  and  jealous, 
and  angry,  when  you  hear  that  He  has  been  mani- 
festing Himself  in  all  these  ways  to  them  that  believe. 
But  you  were  not  waiting  for  Him.  You  neither  ex- 
pected Him  nor  wished  for  Him :  and  He  never  comes 
to  the  like  of  you  till  He  comes  at  last  and  too  late. 
You  will  be  horrified  when  it  is  told  you  what  your 
whole  life,  and  your  whole  heart,  and  all  your  desires 


THOMAS  167 

and  hopes  say  when  words  are  put  upon  them.  They 
all  say, '  I  will  not  believe  till  the  last  trump  awakens 
me,  and  the  graves  are  opened,  and  the  great  white 
throne  is  set."* 

Now,  from  Thomas  and  his  Lord  that  night  let 
us  learn  this  also,  and  take  it  away.  Let  us  act  upon 
the  faith  we  have.  Let  us  frequent  the  places  where 
He  is  said  to  manifest  Himself.  Let  us  feed  our 
faith  on  the  strong  meat  of  His  word.  And,  since 
here  also  acts  produce  habits,  and  habits  character ; 
let  us  act  faith  continually  on  faith's  great  objects 
and  operations.  And,  especially,  on  our  glorified 
Redeemer.  To  Thomas  He  was  crucified  yesterday. 
But  to  us  He  is  risen,  and  exalted,  and  is  soon  to 
come  again.  That  the  trial  of  your  faith,  being 
much  more  precious  than  of  gold  that  perisheth, 
might  be  found  unto  praise,  and  honour,  and  glory 
at  the  appearing  of  Jesus  Christ.  Whom  having 
not  seen,  ye  love :  in  whom,  though  now  ye  see  Him 
not,  yet  believing,  ye  rejoice  with  joy  unspeakable 
and  full  of  glory. 

For  all  thy  rankling  doubts  so  sore. 

Love  thou  thy  Saviour  still. 
Him  for  thy  Lord  and  God  adore. 
And  ever  do  His  will. 
Though  vexing  thoughts  may  seem  to  last. 
Let  not  thy  soul  be  quite  o'ercast ; 
Soon  will  He  show  thee  all  His  wounds  and  say, 
Long  have  I  known  thy  name :  know  thou  My  face  alway. 


y 


l68  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 


LXXXIX 
CLEOPAS   AND   HIS   COMPANION 

LEOPAS  and  his  companion  were  two 
men  of  Emmaus  who  had  gone  up  the 
week  before  to  Jerusalem  to  keep  the 
passover.  Cleopas  and  his  companion 
were  not  exactly  disciples  of  our  Lord. 
That  is  to  say,  their  names  were  not  among  the 
twelve ;  though  the  likelihood  is  that  they  were 
numbered  and  were  well  known  among  the  seventy. 
And  they  had  gone  up  to  the  feast  in  the  hope  that 
their  Lord  would  be  there,  and  that  they  would  both 
see  and  hear  Him  as  on  former  feast-days.  It  seemed 
to  them  like  a  year,  like  a  lifetime,  like  another 
world,  since  last  week  they  walked  and  talked  to- 
gether so  full  of  hope  and  expectation,  all  the  way 
up  from  Emmaus  to  Jerusalem.  For  Jesus  had 
come  up  to  the  passover,  as  they  had  expected  He 
would.  And  they  had  both  seen  Him,  and  had 
heard  Him  speak.  They  had  followed  Him  about 
in  the  streets  of  Jerusalem  as  He  preached  His  last 
sermons,  so  terrible  to  them  to  see  and  to  hear. 
They  were  not  among  the  twelve,  and  they  had  not 
been  invited  to  the  upper  room,  but  they  had  done 
the  next  best  thing  to  that,  for  they  had  eaten  their 


CLEOPAS  AND  HIS  COMPANION        169 

passover  supper  out  at  Bethany  with  their  friend 
Lazarus,  and  with  Martha  and  Mary  his  sisters. 
The  whole  of  Bethany  was  absolutely  overwhelmed 
when  the  news  came  out  at  midnight  that  Jesus  had 
been  betrayed  by  one  of  His  disciples,  and  was  at 
that  moment  in  the  hands  of  His  enemies.  And 
with  their  loins  girt,  and  with  their  passover-staff' 
in  their  hands,  Lazarus,  and  Cleopas,  and  his  com- 
panion, were  abroad  in  the  streets  of  Jerusalem  all 
that  night,  and  till  after  the  crucifixion  was  finished 
next  morning.  And  now  the  third  day  of  that 
tremendous  overthrow  and  shipwreck  had  come, 
when,  with  a  sickness  of  heart  indescribable,  Cleopas 
at  last  said  to  his  companion,  '  Rise,  and  let  us 
shake  the  dust  off  our  feet  against  this  accursed  city, 
and  let  us  escape  to  our  own  home."*  True ;  certain 
women  of  their  company  had  rushed  into  the  city 
that  morning,  saying  that  they  had  seen  a  vision  of 
angels  who  told  them  that  their  crucified  Master  had 
risen  and  left  His  grave ;  but  to  Cleopas  all  that 
was  so  many  idle  tales.  '  No,  no  ! '  Cleopas  said  to 
his  companion,  '  come  away  home.  Believe  me,  we 
have  seen  the  last  of  the  redemption  of  Israel  in  our 
day,  at  any  rate.'  AVhy,  you  will  ask,  was  Cleopas 
in  such  a  hurry  to  get  home  ?  Miglit  he  not  have 
gone  out  to  see  the  empty  grave  for  himself?  Might 
he  not  have  waited  in  Jerusalem  till  the  end  of 
"  the  third  day  '"*  that  his  Master  so  often  foretold 
about  Himself.?  As  it  was,  Cleopas,  like  Pliable  in 
the  Pilgrim's  Progress^  w^as  making  a  desperate 
plunge  through  the  Slough  of  Despond  so  as  to  get 
out  on  the  side  next  his  own  house,  when  a  man 


170  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

whose  name  was  Help  came  and  held  out  His  hand  to 
him,  and  to  his  companion,  in  the  midst  of  the  Slough. 
Yes :  Cleopas  and  his  companion,  like  Mr.  Fear- 
ing, had  a  perfect  Slough  of  Despond  in  their  own 
hearts  that  sunset  as  they  walked  down  to  Emmaus 
and  reasoned  together  and  were  sad.  *  Where  did 
you  see  Him  first  ?  What  was  it  that  led  you  to 
think  that  He  was  the  Christ  ?  And,  did  you  hear 
this  sermon,  and  that  ?  And  this  parable  and  that  ? ' 
And  then  the  arrest,  and  the  trial,  and  the  cruci- 
fixion. No  wonder  they  reeled  to  and  fro,  and 
staggered  under  their  load  of  sorrow,  till  the 
workers  in  the  fields  said  they  were  two  drunken 
men  on  their  way  home  from  the  feast.  When  a 
stranger  overtook  them  as  they  halted,  and  reasoned, 
and  debated  together  in  their  sadness.  '  Peace  be 
with  you  both ! '  said  the  stranger  with  a  pleasant 
voice  as  he  joined  himself  to  their  company.  But 
Cleopas  was  scarcely  civil.  Cleopas  scarcely  returned 
the  salute  of  the  stranger,  so  overwhelmed  was  he 
with  his  sadness.  And  they  walked  on  in  silence, 
Cleopas  and  his  companion,  and  the  stranger.  Till 
the  sympathising  stranger  broke  the  sad  silence 
with  these  confiding  words :  "  What  manner  of  com- 
munications are  these  that  ye  have  one  to  another, 
as  ye  walk  and  are  sad  ?  "  '  Art  thou  such  a  stranger 
in  Jerusalem ,"*  answered  Cleopas, '  as  not  to  know  the 
things  which  are  come  to  pass  there  in  these  days  ? 
Where  wert  thou  all  last  week  ?  Where  wert  thou 
last  Friday?  Thou  canst  not  have  been  in  Jeru- 
salem, surely,  for  all  Jerusalem  was  out  at  Calvary 
that  morning.     And  if  thou  hadst  been  out  there 


CLEOPAS  AND  HIS  COMPANION        171 

thou  wouldst  not  wonder  at  our  sadness.'  The 
stranger  did  not  say  whether  he  had  been  out  at 
Calvary  last  Friday  morning  or  no.  "What  things?" 
He  asked,  bowing,  at  it  were,  to  CIeopas''s  reproof 
and  reproach  at  such  unaccountable  ignorance  at 
such  a  time.  And  then  we  have  Cleopas's  reply  in 
his  own  very  identical  words.  For  Luke,  you  must 
know,  when  he  was  preparing  himself  for  his  Gospel, 
and  when  he  had  read  Mark's  meagre  verses  about 
the  Emmaus  meeting,  said  to  himself,  'I  must  be  at 
the  bottom  of  this !  I  must  have  a  much  fuller 
record  of  all  this  in  my  Gospel.  I  wonder  if  Cleo- 
pas  is  still  alive  ? '  And  thus  it  is  that  we  have 
before  us,  verbatim  et  literatim^  the  exact  answer 
that  Cleopas  gave  to  the  stranger  when  he  asked, 
"  What  things  ?  "  *  I  remember,  as  if  it  were  but 
yesterday,**  said  Cleopas  to  Luke,  '  the  whole  scene, 
and  every  word  that  He  said  to  us,  and  that  we  said 
to  Him.  How  could  I  ever  forget  a  single  syllable 
of  it  .'*  It  was  all  so  burned  into  my  heart  that  I 
have  told  it  a  thousand  times.'  And  Cleopas  took 
the  Evangelist  out  of  Emmaus  and  showed  him  the 
very  spot  just  Wbere  the  stranger  joined  them,  and 
just  where  He  said,  "  What  things .?  "  *And  just 
where  I  said — these  were  my  very  words  to  Him — 
I  said,  Concerning  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  which  was  a 
prophet  mighty  in  deed  and  in  word  before  God 
and  all  the  people.  And  how  the  chief  priests  and 
our  rulers  delivered  Him  to  be  condemned  to  death, 
and  have  crucified  Him.  But  we  trusted,  I  went 
on  in  my  folly,  that  it  had  been  He  who  should 
have  redeemed  Israel :  and  beside  all  this,  to-day  is 


172  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

the  third  day  since  these  things  were  done.  And 
from  that  hour  to  this,  I  have  never  for  an  hour  or 
may  say  never  for  a  moment,  forgotten  the  look  He 
gave  us  when  He  said  to  us,  "  O  fools,  and  slow  of 
heart  to  believe  ! " '  And  then  Cleopas  continued 
to  relate  to  Luke  the  rest  of  that  never-to-be- 
forgotten  conversation  concerning  the  true  Christ  in 
Moses  and  the  prophets.  What  an  hour  that  was 
to  Cleopas  and  to  his  companion !  They  did  not 
know  where  they  were.  They  forgot  themselves. 
They  were  carried  captive  with  the  stranger's  amaz- 
ing knowledge,  and  with  His  supreme  authority, 
and  with  His  burning  words.  And  no  wonder. 
Many  learned,  and  earnest,  and  eloquent  men  have 
expounded  Moses,  and  David,  and  Isaiah  since  that 
Emmaus  afternoon ;  but  human  ears  and  human 
hearts  have  never  heard  such  another  exposition  of 
Holy  Scripture  as  Cleopas  and  his  companion  heard 
at  that  stranger's  lips.  For,  this  was  an  Interpreter, 
one  among  a  thousand !  When  this  Interpreter 
gave  His  first  interpretation  of  Scripture  in  Nazareth 
three  years  before,  there  was  delivered  to  Him  the 
book  of  the  prophet  Isaiah.  But  they  had  no  book 
to  deliver  Him  on  the  way  to  Emmaus.  Nor  did  He 
need  a  book.  This  stranger,  whoever  He  was,  seemed 
to  Cleopas  to  have  the  whole  book  unrolled  within 
Himself.  He  seemed  to  have  Moses,  and  David, 
and  Isaiah,  and  Jeremiah,  absolutely  by  heart.  And 
the  way  He  spake  to  them  called  to  His  two  com- 
panions'* remembrance  all  that  they  had  ever  heard 
or  read  in  Moses,  and  the  Prophets,  and  the  Psalms. 
The  seed  of  the  woman;  the  brazen  serpent;  the 


CLEOPAS  AND  HIS  COMPANION        173 

paschal  lamb ;  the  scapegoat ;  the  thirty  pieces  of 
silver.  My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken 
me  ?  They  part  my  garments  among  them,  and  cast 
lots  upon  my  vesture.  Reproach  hath  broken  mine 
heart :  I  looked  for  some  to  take  pity,  but  there  was 
none  :  and  for  comforters,  but  I  found  none.  They 
gave  me  also  gall  for  my  meat,  and  in  my  thirst 
they  gave  me  vinegar  to  drink.  He  was  wounded  for 
our  transgressions,  He  was  bruised  for  our  iniquities  ; 
the  chastisement  of  our  peace  was  upon  Him :  and 
with  His  stripes  we  are  healed.  He  is  brought  as 
a  lamb  to  the  slaughter,  and  as  a  sheep  before  her 
shearers  is  dumb,  so  He  opened  not  His  mouth. 
'  O,  fool  that  I  was ! '  Cleopas  cried  out  to  Luke. 
'  I  had  seen  it  all  fulfilled  the  week  before  with  mine 
own  eyes.  But,  that  evening,  our  eyes  were  some- 
how holden  that  we  did  not  know  Him  again  !  At 
the  same  time  how  our  hearts  did  burn  as  He  spake 
these  things  to  us.  And  then  He  said  to  us,  appeal- 
ing to  us  to  reply  :  May  not  Jesus  of  Nazareth  be 
the  true  Christ  of  God,  and  your  own  Redeemer 
after  all  ?  After  all,  may  not  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
be  He  who  was  to  cGme?  Do  not  all  your  own 
prophets  tell  you  that  the  true  Christ  must  be 
denied  of  His  own,  and  delivered  up  to  Pilate  to 
crucify  ?  Must  not  the  Prince  of  Life,  when  He 
comes,  be  killed  and  raised  from  the  dead  on  the 
third  day  ?  What  think  ye  ?  What  say  ye  ?  And 
have  you  not  just  told  me  yourselves  that  certain 
women  of  your  own  company  were  early  this  very 
morning  at  the  sepulchre,  and  that  the  angels  of 
heaven  were  descended  there  to  testify  that  Jesus 


174  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

of  Nazareth  was  alive  again  ? '  And  so  on,  till  their 
hearts  burned  within  them  like  two  coals  of  juniper. 
O  ye  men  still  of  Emmaus,  now  sitting  and  hearing 
all  that  in  this  house !  I  implore  you  to  open  your 
heart  also  to  your  Lord's  burning  words  about 
Himself.  To  speak  plainly,  I  implore  you  to  seek 
out  in  this  city  that  expounder,  that  one  of  a 
thousand  preachers,  who  makes  your  heart  to  burn. 
If  by  chance,  so  to  call  it,  you  enter  a  church  in 
this  city  of  churches  on  a  Sabbath  day,  with  your 
heart  sad,  with  your  hopes  ashamed,  with  your  ex- 
pectations a  complete  shipwreck,  like  Cleopas  and 
his  desponding  companion,  and  the  preacher  so 
opens  God's  word  to  you,  so  sets  forth  the  re- 
demption of  Israel  and  your  own  redemption,  so 
sets  forth  a  suffering  Redeemer  and  His  suffering 
people,  that  your  heart  is  in  a  flame  all  that  day, 
then,  that  is  the  preacher  in  all  this  world  for  you. 
That  is  my  servant  for  you,  says  your  God  to 
you.  I  have  made  his  mouth  like  a  sharp  sword 
for  you.  I  have  made  him  a  polished  shaft  for 
you.  I  have  hid  him  in  my  quiver  for  you.  Hear 
him,  said  the  Father,  concerning  his  preacher-Son. 
And  that  preacher  you  have  just  heard  may  be  as 
great  a  stranger  to  you  as  our  Lord  was  to  Cleopas 
on  that  highway  that  afternoon ;  but,  if  I  were 
you,  I  would  find  out  his  name,  and  where  God 
has  given  him  his  pulpit.  If  I  were  you  I  would 
have  him  for  my  minister,  and  for  my  children's 
minister,  at  any  cost.  I  would  sell  my  present  house 
and  buy  another  to  be  near  that  preacher.  And 
if  you  never  hear  such  a  preacher ;  if  no  preacher 


CLEOPAS  AND  HIS  COMPANION        175 

has  ever  made  your  heart  to  burn ;  if  there  is  not 
in  all  the  city  a  single  heart-kindling,  heart-com- 
manding, heart-capturing  preacher  for  you,  then,  at 
any  rate,  there  are  not  a  few  heart-kindling  and 
heart-holding  authors  to  be  had.  Authors,  thanks 
be  to  God,  that  will  make  you  all  but  independent 
of  us  lukewarm  preachers.  Do  you  know  some  of 
those  authors'  names  ?  Do  any  of  you  almost  owe 
your  soul  to  some  of  them  ?  Do  you  have  a  select 
shelf  of  them  within  reach  of  your  chair  and  your 
bed  ?  Could  you  say,  if  not  of  some  spiritual 
preacher,  then  of  some  spiritual  writer,  what  Crashaw 
says  of  Teresa:  "The  flame  I  took  from  reading 
thee.*"  And  what  Cleopas  said  to  Luke  about  this 
stranger's  words,  "Did  not  our  heart  burn  within 
us  ? "  I  preached  sin  with  gTeat  sense,  says  John 
Bunyan.  And  I  warrant  you  that  stranger  preached 
the  Messianic  and  the  Atonement  passages  in  David, 
and  in  Isaiah,  and  in  Jeremiah,  and  in  Zechariah, 
with  great  sense  also,  and  for  a  very  good  reason. 

Yea,  this  man's  brow,  like  to  a  title-leaf, 
Foretells  the  nature  of  a  tragic  volume  : 
He  trembles,  and  the  whiteness  in  his  cheek 
Is  apter  than  his  tongue  to  tell  his  errand. 

Never  did  threescore  furlongs  seem  so  short  since 
furlongs  were  laid  out  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 
'  Come  and  sup  with  us,'  said  the  entranced  Cleopas 
to  this  mysterious  stranger  who  had  so  over-mastered 
him,  and  so  set  his  heart  on  fire.  "Abide  with 
us,  for  the  day  is  far  spent."  And  when  they  had 
sat  down  to  supper,  Cleopas  naturally  asked  the 
stranger,  as  you  would  have  done,  to  say  grace. 


176  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

What  grace  did  that  stranger  say  in  that  supper- 
room  in  Emmaus,  I  wonder?  John  Livingstone 
tells  us  that  John  Smith  of  Maxtown  in  Teviot- 
dale  had  all  the  Psalms  of  David  by  heart,  and  that, 
instead  of  our  curt  and  grudging  grace  before  meat 
he  always  repeated  to  his  attentive  table  a  whole 
Psalm.  Would  it  be  at  Emmaus  the  twenty- third 
Psalm.  Would  it  be  the  twenty-seventh  and  the 
twenty-eighth  verses  of  the  hundred  and  fourth 
Psalm?  Or,  would  it  be  Job's  every  Sabbath 
morning  and  every  Sabbath  evening  grace  and  bless- 
ing ?  Or,  would  it  be  something  that  the  stranger 
made  up  on  the  spot?  Would  it  be  this,  at  the 
hearing  of  which  Cleopas''s  heart  would  kindle 
again?  "Except  ye  eat  the  flesh  of  the  Son  of 
Man,  and  drink  His  blood,  ye  have  no  life  in  you. 
For  My  flesh  is  meat  indeed,  and  My  blood  is  drink 
indeed."  Whatever  the  grace  was  that  He  said,  you 
may  be  quite  sure  He  did  not  say  it  as  we  say  our 
graces.  He  did  not  mumble  it  over  so  that  nobody 
could  hear  it.  He  did  not  say  it  as  if  He  was 
ashamed  of  it.  He  did  not  say,  Amen  !  with  His 
hand  down  already  in  the  dish.  Neither  did  Cleopas 
and  his  companion  sit  down  and  begin  to  eat  before 
the  grace  was  finished.  No !  for  the  truth  is,  the 
three  men  got  no  further  than  the  grace  that  night. 
That  sacred  supper,  with  such  a  grace  said  over  it, 
stands  on  that  table  to  this  day.  It  is  not  eaten 
to  this  day.  For  as  the  stranger  handed  to  Cleopas 
and  to  his  companion  the  bread  He  had  blessed  and 
broken,  they  could  not  but  see  His  Hands !  And 
the  moment  they  saw  His  Hands,  He  had  vanished 
out  of  their  sight. 


MATTHIAS  THE  SUCCESSOR  TO  JUDAS     177 


MATTHIAS  THE  SUCCESSOR  TO  JUDAS 
ISCARIOT 

N  the  opening  chapter  of  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  we  are  introduced  into  the 
first  congregational  meeting,  so  to  call 
it,  that  ever  was  held  in  the  Church 
of  Christ.  There  are  a  hundred-and- 
twenty  members  present  in  the  upper  room,  and  the 
Presbytery  of  Jerusalem  are  met  there  with  the 
congregation :  moderator,  clerk,  and  all.  Peter 
presides ;  and  he  discharges  the  duties  of  the  day 
with  all  that  solemnity  of  mind  and  all  that  in- 
tensity of  heart  which  we  seldom  miss  in  Peter. 
The  solemnity  of  the  meeting  would  solemnise  any 
man.  It  Mould  melt  a  far  harder  heart  than  the 
heart  of  the  emotional  son  of  Jonas  ever  was.  For 
Judas  Iscariot,  a  member  of  the  Presbytery,  so  to  call 
him,  has  turned  out  to  have  been  the  son  of  perdition 
all  the  time.  For  thirty  pieces  of  silver  he  had 
become  guide  to  them  that  took  Jesus.  Peter  him- 
self had  wellnigh  gone  do^vn  into  the  same  horrible 
pit  with  Judas  :  and  he  also  would  have  been  in  his 
own  place  by  this  time,  had  it  not  been  that  his 
Master  prayed  for  Peter  that  his  faith  might  not 
fail.     And  thus  it  is  that  Peter  is  now  sitting  in 

u 


178  fiiBLE  CHARACTERS 

that  seat  of  honour  and  influence  and  authority, 
and  is  conducting  the  election  of  a  successor  to 
Judas,  with  all  that  holy  fear  and  with  all  that  firm 
faith  which  makes  that  upper  room,  under  Peter's 
presidency,  such  a  pattern  to  all  vacant  congrega- 
tions to  all  time.  Considering  her  age  and  her 
size,  the  Church  of  Jerusalem  had  a  large  number 
of  men  any  one  of  whom  could  quite  well  have  been 
put  forward  and  proposed  for  the  vacant  office. 
But  Peter  and  his  colleagues,  with  a  great  sense 
of  responsibility,  had  prepared  a  short  leet  of  two 
quite  outstanding  and  distinguished  men ;  Joseph, 
who  was  surnamed  Justus,  and  Matthias.  And  then 
one  of  the  eleven  led  the  congregation  in  prayer  in 
these  well-remembered  words — "Lord, Thou  knowest 
the  hearts  of  all  men :  show  whether  of  these  two 
Thou  hast  chosen."  And  the  lot  fell  upon  Matthias, 
and  he  was  numbered  with  the  eleven  apostles. 

Now,  somewhat  remarkable  to  say,  never  before 
the  day  of  his  election,  and  never  after  it,  is 
Matthias''s  name  so  much  as  once  mentioned  in  all 
the  New  Testament.  At  the  same  time,  we  have 
Matthias's  footprints,  so  to  speak,  oftener  than 
once  on  the  pages  of  the  four  Gospels.  And  a 
man's  mere  footprints,  and  the  direction  they  point 
to,  will  sometimes  tell  us  far  more  about  the  real 
character  and  capacity  of  the  man  than  whole 
volumes  of  printed  matter  about  him.  The  first 
time  we  see  one  of  Matthias's  footprints  is  on  the 
sands  of  Bethabara  beyond  Jordan,  where  John  was 
baptizing.  Like  Andrew  and  Simon  the  sons  of 
Jonas,  and  like  John  the  son  of  Zebedee,  IMatthias 


MATTHIAS  THE  SUCCESSOR  TO  JUDAS     179 

was  a  disciple  of  the  Baptist  at  that  time,  confess- 
ing his  sins.  The  next  day  John  seeth  Jesus 
coming  to  him,  and  saith  to  Matthias,  Behold  the 
Lamb  of  God.  And  Matthias  heard  him  speak,  and 
he  followed  Jesus,  along  with  John  and  Andrew. 
And  when  Peter  tabled  Matthias's  name  on  the 
day  of  the  election,  he  certified  all  these  things 
about  Matthias  to  the  ten,  and  to  the  women,  and 
to  Mary  the  mother  of  Jesus,  and  to  His  brethren, 
and  to  the  whole  hundred-and -twenty.  And  more 
than  that,  Peter  certified  to  the  whole  congrega- 
tion that,  when  many  who  had  been  baptized, 
apostatised  and  went  back  and  walked  no  more 
with  John  and  Jesus,  Matthias,  said  Peter,  has 
this  to  his  praise,  that  he  has  endured  and  has 
persevered  up  to  this  very  present.  Not  only  so, 
but  this  also,  that  Matthias  had  been  a  witness 
with  the  eleven  of  the  resurrection  of  the  Lord. 
And  these,  added  Peter,  are  the  two  indispensable 
tests  of  fitness  for  this  vacant  office  ;  a  three  years' 
conversion  and  faithful  discipleship,  and  this  also, 
that  he  had  seen  the  risen  Lord  with  his  own  eyes. 
And  the  lot  fell  upon  Matthias. 

Now,  it  is  sometimes  not  very  unlike  that  when 
you  yourselves  meet  to  call  a  minister.  Tremendous 
as  the  moment  is  :  everlasting  as  the  issues  are  that 
hang  upon  that  moment:  you  may  never  have 
heard  so  much  as  the  name  of  that  candidate  for 
the  pastorate  of  your  immortal  soul.  You  may 
never  so  much  as  have  heard  him  once  open  his 
mouth  either  to  pray  or  to  preach.  Not  one  of  the 
hundred-and-twenty  had  ever  heard  this  stranger 


180  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

man  Matthias  once  open  his  mouth.  But  Peter  has 
had  his  eye  on  Matthias  all  along.  Peter  knew  far 
more  about  both  Joseph  and  Matthias  than  they 
could  have  believed.  Peter  was  all  ears  and  all  eyes 
where  a  future  apostle  and  pastor  was  concerned. 
And  so  it  is  sometimes  still.  All  you  really  know 
about  your  future  minister  you  have  to  take  some- 
times on  the  best  testimony  you  can  get.  As  one  of 
our  own  elders  once  said  when  we  were  calling  our 
young  minister :  "  I  would  rather  trust  to  those  two 
capable  men  who  know  him  and  have  heard  him 
preach,  than  I  would  trust  to  my  own  ears."  And 
he  spake  with  both  wisdom  and  humility  in  so  say- 
ing. Like  the  hundred-and-twenty,  little  as  you 
know  about  your  future  minister,  you  know  this 
much,  that  when  all  the  other  young  men  at  school 
and  college  were  choosing  learning,  and  philosophy, 
and  medicine,  and  law,  and  the  army,  and  the  navy, 
and  trade,  and  manufactures,  and  so  on ;  this  youth 
now  in  your  offer  was  led  to  choose  the  word  of 
God,  and  the  pulpit,  and  the  pastorate,  for  his  life- 
work.  And,  with  all  that,  you  may  with  some 
assurance,  put  your  hand  to  his  call,  after  you  have 
made  your  importunate  and  personal  prayer  about 
this  whole  momentous  matter  to  Him  who  knows 
the  hearts  of  all  men.  For  He  knows  your  heart 
better  than  you  know  it  yourself:  and  He  knows 
just  what  kind  of  a  minister  your  heart  needs  :  your 
own  heart  and  your  children's  hearts.  And,  then, 
He  knows  the  hearts  of  all  those  probationers  also, 
and  whether  their  hearts  are  properly  in  their 
Master's  work  or  no.     As  also  what  motive  it  was 


MATTHIAS  THE  SUCCESSOR  TO  JUDAS     181 

that  made  them  ministers  at  first,  and  with  what 
motive  and  with  what  intention  they  are  laying  out 
their  future  work  among  you.  How  well  it  is,  both 
for  congregations  and  candidates,  that  He  knows  all 
men's  hearts,  and  that  all  men's  hearts  are  in  His 
hands. 

Three  years  ago  Matthias  had  come  through  a 
very  sharp  trial  of  faith,  and  love,  and  patience, 
and  perseverance.  At  his  conversion  and  baptism 
Matthias  had  prepared  his  heart  to  leave  all  and  to 
follow  Christ.  But  instead  of  being  invited  to  do 
what  with  all  his  heart  he  wished  to  do,  Matthias 
was  deliberately  passed  over  by  our  Lord  in  His 
election  of  the  twelve.  Matthias  had  been  in  Christ, 
as  Paul  says,  a  long  time  before  some  of  those  men 
who  were  lifted  over  his  head ;  and  here  was  he  as 
good  as  set  aside  and  clean  forgotten.  And,  just 
suppose,  what  is  more  than  likely,  that  Matthias 
knew  Judas's  secret  heart  and  real  character  quite 
well ;  what  a  shock  it  was  to  Matthias's  faith,  and 
love,  and  whole  religious  life,  to  see  such  a  deceiver 
as  Iscariot  was,  deliberately  chosen  by  Christ,  when 
Matthias  would  have  shed  the  last  drop  of  his  blood 
for  the  Master  who  had  refused  to  employ  him. 
But  Matthias,  for  all  that,  did  not  let  his  heart 
sour.  He  accepted  being  set  aside  as  his  proper 
place.  He  found  in  himself  only  too  many  reasons 
why  he  was  so  set  aside.  He  was  like  the  defeated 
candidate  in  Plutarch  who,  departing  home  from  the 
election  to  his  house,  said  to  them  at  home  that 
it  did  him  good  to  see  that  there  were  three  hun- 
dred men  in  Athens  who  were  better  men  than  he 


182  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

was.  And  thus  it  was  that  when  many  men  would 
have  turned  away  and  gone  after  another  master, 
Matthias  said  to  himself:  'Office  or  no  office, 
election  or  rejection,  call  or  no  call,  to  whom  else 
can  I  go  ? '  Nay,  not  only  did  Matthias  keep  true 
to  his  Master  through  all  these  humiliations  and 
disappointments,  but  he  continued  to  behave  him- 
self and  to  lay  out  his  life  j  ust  as  if  he  had  been 
elected  and  ordained.  So  much  so,  that  without 
ordination  he  worked  harder  at  the  out-of-the-way 
work  of  the  discipleship  than  some  of  those  did  who 
were  elected,  and  ordained,  and  honoured,  and 
rewarded  men.  And  thus  it  was  that  Peter  was 
able  to  certify  to  the  hundred-and -twenty  that 
Matthias  had  been  as  true  and  as  loyal  to  his  Lord 
all  those  three  years  as  the  very  best  of  the  eleven 
had  been.  '  And  thus,'  said  Peter,  '  if  there  were 
some  who  were  numbered  among  us  who  were  not 
at  heart  of  us,  there  were  others  who  were  at  heart 
and  in  life  really  of  us,  though  they  were  not  as  yet 
written  down  among  us.'  So  have  I  myself  seen 
heaven-born  and  highly-gifted  ministers  of  Christ 
passed  over  in  the  day  when  this  and  that  vacant 
charge  met  to  cast  their  lots.  And,  like  Matthias, 
I  have  seen  such  men  left  out  at  the  beginning 
only  to  be  the  more  promoted  and  employed  in  the 
end.  But  then,  to  be  sure,  they  were  like  Matthias 
in  this  also,  that  all  their  days  they  were  men  of 
staunchest  loyalty  to  their  Master,  and  men  of 
sleepless  labour  for  His  cause.  When  a  door  shall 
open,  and  where,  is  not  the  true  servant's  business, 
nor  his  anxiety.     It  is  the  true  servant's  part  to  be 


MATTHIAS  THE  SUCCESSOR  TO  JUDAS     183 

ready ;  which  the  truest  of  all  servants  never  feels 
that  he  is.  And  disappointments  and  procrastina- 
tions to  all  such  men  are  but  extended  opportunities 
to  enable  them  to  be  somewhat  less  unready  for 
their  call  when  it  comes.  If  Matthias  had  been  a 
modern  probationer  you  would  not  have  found  him 
going  about  complaining  against  this  committee 
and  that  congregation.  You  would  not  have  seen 
him  going  about  idle  all  the  week,  and  then  turn- 
ing up  at  each  new  vacancy  with  the  same  old  and 
oft-fingered  sermon.  No.  You  may  shut  all  your 
doors  on  some  candidates,  but  you  cannot  shut 
them  out  from  their  books,  and  from  the  hidden 
and  unstipended  work  that  their  hearts  love.  You 
cannot,  with  all  your  ill-cast  lots,  either  embitter 
or  alienate  a  truly  elect,  and  humble-minded,  and 
diligent  disciple  of  Christ.  And  with  all  your  ill- 
advised  elections  the  stone  that  is  fit  for  the  wall 
will  not  always  be  let  lie  in  the  ditch. 

But  is  there  anything  possible  to  our  very  best 
probationers  that  can  at  all  be  compared  to  this 
qualification  of  those  days — to  have  companied  with 
the  Lord  Jesus  all  the  time  He  went  out  and  in 
among  His  disciples  ?  Yes ;  I  think  there  is.  Nay, 
not  only  so;  but  when  we  enter  into  all  the  in- 
wardness and  depth  of  this  matter  we  come  to  see 
that  our  students  of  divinity  and  our  probationers 
have  actually  some  great  advantages  over  the  twelve 
disciples  themselves.  Our  Lord's  words  are  final, 
and  full  of  instruction  and  comfort  to  us,  on  this 
matter.  His  words  to  Thomas,  I  mean.  Jesus 
saith  to  hinx-  "Thomas,  because  thou   hast  seen, 


184  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

thou  hast  believed  ;  blessed  are  they  that  have  not 
seen,  and  yet  have  believed."  And  you  will  all 
recall  Sir  Thomas  Browne'^s  noble  protestation : 
"  Now,  honestly,  I  bless  myself  that  I  never  saw 
Christ  nor  His  disciples.  I  would  not  have  been 
one  of  Chrisf's  patients  on  whom  He  wrought  His 
wonders.  For  then  had  my  faith  been  thrust  upon 
me,  nor  should  I  enjoy  that  greater  blessing  pro- 
nounced to  all  that  believe  and  saw  not.  I  believe 
He  was  dead  and  buried,  and  rose  again  :  and  desire 
to  see  Him  in  His  glory,  rather  than  to  contem- 
plate Him  in  His  cenotaph  or  sepulchre.  They 
only  had  the  advantage  of  a  bold  and  noble  faith 
who  lived  before  His  coming,  and  who  upon  obscui*e 
prophecies  and  mystical  types  could  raise  a  belief 
and  expect  apparent  impossibJlities."*'  To  have  seen 
and  handled  the  Word  of  Life ;  to  have  had  Him 
dwelling  among  them,  full  of  grace  and  truth,  as 
John  says ;  to  have  had  Him  going  in  and  out 
among  them,  as  Peter  says,  was  a  privilege  incom- 
parable and  unspeakable.  At  the  same  time,  let 
any  student  in  our  day  read  his  Greek  Testament, 
with  his  eye  on  the  Object :  let  him  be  like  John 
Bunyan : — "  Methought  I  was  as  if  I  had  seen  Him 
born,  as  if  I  had  seen  Him  grow  up,  as  if  I  had 
seen  Him  walk  through  this  world,  from  the  Cradle 
to  the  Cross :  to  which,  when  He  came,  I  saw  how 
gently  He  gave  Himself  up  to  be  hanged  and  nailed 
on  it  for  my  sins  and  wicked  doings.  Also,  as  I 
was  musing  on  this  His  progress,  that  dropped  on 
my  spirit,  He  was  ordained  for  the  slaughter,"  and 
so  on.  Let  any  of  our  students  company  with 
Christ  all  the  time  He  went  in  and  out  in  that 


MATTHIAS  THE  SUCCESSOR  TO  JUDAS     185 

manner,  and  he  may  depend  upon  it  that  the 
beautiful  benediction  which  our  Lord  addressed  in 
reproof  to  Thomas  will  be  richly  fulfilled  to  that 
wise-hearted  student  all  his  happy  ministerial  days, 
and  through  him  to  his  ha|jpy  people.  Now,  if 
there  were  a  divinity  student  here  I  would  ask  and 
demand  of  him  out  of  this  Scripture  for  students — 
Are  you  so  companying  with  Christ  while  you  are 
still  at  college  ?  Do  you  see  with  all  your  inward 
eyes  what  you  read  in  your  New  Testament  ?  Do 
you  believe  and  believe  and  believe  your  way  through 
the  four  Gospels  ?  Is  your  faith  the  very  substance 
itself  of  the  things  you  hope  for,  and  the  absolute 
and  conclusive  evidence  of  the  things  you  do  not  as 
yet  see  ?  Do  you  pray  your  way  through  the  life 
of  Christ?  Do  you  put  the  lepers,  and  the  sick, 
and  the  possessed  with  devils,  and  the  dead  in  their 
graves,  out  of  their  places,  as  you  read  about  them ; 
and  do  you  put  yourself  into  their  places,  and  say 
what  they  say,  and  hear  and  accept  what  is  said  to 
them  ?  For,  if  so,  then  you  will  receive,  all  your 
preaching  and  pastoral  days,  the  end  of  your  faith, 
the  salvation  of  your  own  soul,  and  the  salvation  of 
the  souls  of  your  people. 

Then,  again,  could  any  of  our  probationers  be 
put  forward  by  his  proposer  as  Matthias  was  still 
put  forward  by  Peter?  No.  It  could  not  possibly 
be  said  of  any  man  living  in  these  dregs  of  time  of 
ours  that  he  had  been  an  actual  witness  of  the  resur- 
rection of  Christ.  And  yet  I  am  not  so  sure  of  that. 
Strange  things  can  be  said  when  you  come  to  speak 
about  a  true  probationer.  With  man  it  is  impos- 
sible ;  but  not  with  God      With  God  all  thins:s  are 


186  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

possible.  I  myself  know  probationers  who  are 
witnesses  of  the  very  best  authority  that  Christ  is 
risen  indeed.  Let  such  a  young  preacher  come  to 
your  vacant  pulpit  with  Ephesians  i.  19  to  ii.  1  for 
his  Sabbath  morning  exposition ;  and  let  him  set 
forth  with  Paul,  that  the  spiritual  quickening  of  a 
soul  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins  is  done  by  the  same 
mighty  power  that  quickened  and  raised  up  Christ, 
and  you  will  soon  see  if  he  knows  what  he  is  speak- 
ing about.  And  if  he  does :  if  he  makes  your 
hearts  to  burn  with  the  noble  doctrine  of  his  and 
your  oneness  with  the  risen  Christ,  then  you  have 
in  your  offer  a  living  witness  of  apostolic  rank  for 
Christ's  resurrection.  You  might  have  the  angel 
who  rolled  away  the  stone  and  sat  on  it  for  your 
other  candidate,  but  he  should  have  no  vote  of 
mine.  Give  me  for  my  minister,  not  Gabriel  him- 
self, but  a  fellow-sinner  who  has  been  quickened 
together  with  Christ,  and  who  can  describe  the 
process  and  the  experience  till  my  death-cold  heart 
burns  within  me  with  the  resurrection-life  of  Christ. 
Give  me  a  minister  whom  God  has  raised  from  the 
dead,  and  you  may  have  all  the  sounding  brasses 
and  tinkling  cymbals  in  heaven  and  earth  for  me. 
And  I  am  glad  to  say  that  there  are  not  a  few 
probationers  abroad  of  that  experience.  Only,  are 
you  sure  you  will  recognise  them  when  they  appear 
and  preach  in  your  pulpit  ?     For — 

A  jest's  prosperity  lies  in  the  ear 

Of  him  that  hears  it,  never  in  the  tongue 

Of  him  that  speaks  it. 

Let  the  hundred-and-twenty  take  heed  how  they 
hear. 


ANANIAS  AND  SAPPHIRA  187 


XCl 
ANANIAS  AND  SAPPHIRA 

HEMISTOCLES  tossed  all  night  and 
could  not  sleep  because  of  the  laurels 
of  Miltiades.  And  Ananias  was  like 
Themistocles  because  of  the  praises 
poured  upon  Barnabas  by  Peter,  and 
by  all  the  apostles,  and  by  all  the  poor.  Ananias 
and  Sapphira  could  not  take  rest  till  they,  like 
Barnabas,  had  sold  their  possession,  and  laid  the 
price  of  it  at  Peter's  feet.  '  Lay  it  at  Peter's  feet,' 
said  Sapphira  to  her  hesitating  husband,  '  and  say 
that  you  are  very  sorry  that  the  land  did  not  sell 
for  far  more.  And  after  I  have  made  my  purchases, 
I  will  come  to  the  Lord's  Supper  with  you.  Keep 
a  place  for  me  at  the  Table,  and  I  will  join  you 
there  in  good  time  in  breaking  of  bread  and  in 
prayers.'  And  Ananias  did  as  Sapphira  had  in- 
stigated him  to  do.  Only,  Ananias  was  not  at  all 
happy  in  his  approach  to  Peter's  feet  that  day. 
Somehow  or  other,  Ananias  could  not  summon 
up  that  gladness  and  that  singleness  of  heart  with 
which  all  the  other  contributors  came  up  that 
day.  With  all  he  could  do  there  was  a  certain 
awkwardness   and  stumblingness    of  manner   that 


188  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

Ananias,  somehow  or  other,  could  not  shake  off 
all  that  day.  You  who  are  collectors  for  churches 
and  charities  are  well  accustomed  to  all  Ananias's 
looks  and  ways  of  speaking  that  day.  You  often 
hear  from  us  the  very  same  explanations  and 
apologies  and  self-defences.  'There  had  been  a 
great  fall  in  the  rent  of  land  in  Judea  of  late. 
And  thus  the  old  estate  had  not  nearly  yielded 
its  upset  and  expected  price.  But  what  it  had 
yielded,  Peter  was  welcome  to  it.' 

Everything  fell  to  Peter  in  those  days.  The 
offices  and  services  of  the  early  Church  had  not 
as  yet  been  divided  up  and  specialised  into  the 
apostleship,  and  the  eldership,  and  the  deaconship, 
and,  till  that  was  done,  Peter  had  to  be  everything 
himself.  Peter  was  premier  apostle,  ruling  elder, 
leading  deacon,  and  all.  It  was  like  those  country 
congregations  where  the  minister  has  to  do  every- 
thing himself,  till  he  has  neither  time  nor  strength 
nor  spirit  left  to  give  himself  continually  to  prayer, 
and  to  the  ministry  of  the  word.  But  Peter  was  a 
perfect  Samson  in  the  Israel  of  that  day.  He  was 
a  minister  of  immense  capacity,  gigantic  energy, 
endless  resource,  and  overpowering  authority.  And 
thus  it  was  that  it  had  fallen  to  Peter  to  sit  over 
against  the  treasury,  and  to  enter  the  Pentecostal 
contributions  that  day.  And  it  struck  Ananias 
like  a  thunderbolt,  when  Peter,  instead  of  smiling 
upon  him  and  praising  him,  denounced  and  sen- 
tenced him  so  sternly.  "  Ananias,  why  hath  Satan 
filled  thine  heart  to  lie  to  the  Holy  Ghost?" 
And  the  young  men  arose,  and  wound  him  up,  and 


ANANIAS  AND  SAPPHIRA  189 

carried  him  out,  and  buried  him.  And  then,  three 
hours  after,  just  as  Peter  was  shutting  up  his 
books  to  go  to  dispense  the  Lord's  Supper,  at  that 
moment  Sapphira  appeared.  '  You  sold  your  farm 
for  so  much,  your  husband  tells  me  ? '  '  Yes,  my 
lord,  for  so  much.'  And  the  young  men  came  in 
and  found  her  dead,  and  they  buried  Ananias  and 
Sapphira  in  Aceldama,  next  back-breadth  to  Judas 
Iscariot,  the  proprietor  of  the  place.  That  the 
prophecy  of  Isaiah  might  be  fulfilled  :  "  They  shall 
go  forth,  and  look  upon  the  carcases  of  the  men 
that  have  transgressed  against  me ;  for  their  worm 
shall  not  die,  neither  shall  their  fire  be  quenched, 
and  they  shall  be  an  abhorring  unto  all  flesh."  And 
that  the  prophecy  of  Daniel  also  might  be  fulfilled  : 
"Many  of  them  that  sleep  in  the  dust  of  the  earth 
shall  awake,  some  to  everlasting  life,  and  some  to 
shame  and  everlasting  contempt." 

What  a  world  this  is  we  live  in !  What  a  red- 
hot  furnace  of  sin  and  of  sanctification  is  this  world  ! 
How  we  all  tempt  and  try  and  test  and  stumble  one 
another  in  everything  we  say  and  do !  Barnabas 
cannot  sell  his  estate  in  Cyprus  and  lay  the  price 
of  it  at  Peter's  feet,  but  by  doing  so  he  must  im- 
mediately become  the  sudden  death  of  Ananias  and 
Sapphira.  But  for  the  Pentecostal  love,  and  but 
for  Barnabas's  baptism  into  that  love,  Ananias  and 
Sapphira  would  have  lived  to  see  their  children's 
children  and  peace  upon  Israel.  They  would  have 
sat  down  together  at  the  Lord's  Table  till  Peter 
preached  their  funeral  sermon  and  held  them  up 
as   two   pattern  proprietors  of  houses  and  lands. 


190  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

But  Barnabas  and  his  renowned  name  became  such 
a  snare  to  Ananias  and  Sapphira  that  they  were 
buried  on  the  same  day  and  in  the  same  grave. 
Ama  nesciri  has  been  the  motto  of  more  than  one 
of  the  great  saints.  Seek  obscurity,  that  is.  Sub- 
scribe anonymously,  that  is.  Do  not  let  your 
collectors  and  the  advertising  people  print  your 
name  or  your  amount,  that  is.  Say,  A  Friend. 
Say,  A  Well-wisher.  Put  a  star,  put  a  cross,  put 
anything  but  your  name,  not  even  your  initials. 
Or,  if  you  are  a  popular  author,  say,  and  not  a 
landowner  in  these  days ;  publish  your  books  with- 
out your  name.  Employ  another  name.  You  may 
miss  something  that  is  very  sweet  to  you  by  doing 
that;  but  it  will  be  made  up  to  you  afterwards 
when  all  your  royalties  come  in,  and  all  your  last 
day  reviews.  Think  of  Ananias  and  Sapphira  when 
all  men  praise  your  generosity,  or  your  Shakesperian 
genius,  or  your  enormous  emoluments.  Be  sure  of 
this,  that  all  Peter'*s  praises  of  Barnabas  did  not 
refresh  Barnabas'^s  heart  half  so  much  as  they 
caused  that  sinful  sleeplessness,  and  all  its  conse- 
quences, to  Ananias  and  Sapphira. 

"  Satan  hath  filled  thine  heart,  Ananias.*"  That 
was  a  terrible  salutation  for  a  man  to  be  met  with 
who  had  just  sold  a  possession  and  laid  such  a 
large  part  of  the  price  at  the  apostle's  feet.  But 
Peter  knew  all  Satan's  processes.  Peter  knew  by 
experience  what  he  was  speaking  about.  And  that  is 
the  reason  why  Peter  speaks  with  such  assurance  and 
severity  and  indignation  and  judgment.  And  had 
Ananias  at  that  moment  gone  out  and  wept  bitterly, 


ANANIAS  AND  SAPPHIRA  I91 

we  would  have  been  drawing  far  other  lessons  to- 
night out  of  that  terrible  Communion  morning. 
Do  you  know  the  premonition,  the  sensation,  the 
smell,  so  to  say,  when  Satan  approaches  you  to  fill 
your  heart  ?  And  what  do  you  say  to  him  ?  What 
do  you  do  to  him  ?  Do  you  set  a  chair  for  him  ? 
Do  you  lay  a  cover  and  set  glasses  for  him  ?  Do 
you  share  your  pillow  with  him  ?  "  Ah !  you  are 
there  again,  my  man ! "  So  an  old  saint  in  the 
congregation  salutes  Satan  as  often  as  her  practised 
nostrils  catch  the  beginning  of  his  brimstone  on 
her  stairhead.  "But  you  are  too  late  this  time. 
I  am  engaged  to-day.  There  is  Some  One  with 
me.  And  you  had  better  flee  at  once.  Come  sooner 
next  time  ! "  Luther  threw  his  ink-bottle.  What 
do  you  throw?  What  do  you  do?  Or  is  Satan 
in  on  you,  and  are  you  in  his  hands  and  at  his 
service,  in  money  matters,  and  what  not,  before 
you  know  where  you  are  ?  "  Ah,  sir,  you  are  there 
again,  are  you  ?  But  my  heart  is  as  full  to-day  as 
it  can  hold  of  Another,"  calls  out  my  stairhead 
friend  by  reason  of  her  exercised  senses. 

The  stroke  was  sudden,  and,  as  we  say,  severe. 
But  even  at  this  distance  of  time  and  place  we 
can  see  some  good  and  sufficient  reasons  for  the 
severity  of  the  stroke.  Poena  dvorum  doctrina 
muUorum,  is  the  epigrammatic  comment  of  an  old 
wriler.  On  two  hands  that  sore  stroke  would  tell 
for  long.  On  the  one  hand,  on  those  who  were 
tempted  to  join  the  Christian  community  in  order 
to  share  in  the  Pentecostal  charity.  For,  then  as 
now,  a  crowd  of  impostors  would  dog  the  steps  of 


192  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

the  open-hearted  and  open-handed  church.  On 
the  other  hand,  we  all  give  very  much  as  others 
have  given  before  us.  We  measure  our  givings,  not 
by  our  duty  nor  by  our  ability,  but  by  what  others 
have  done,  and  by  what  is  expected  of  us.  We  wish 
to  impress  you.  We  wish  to  have  your  approval. 
We  say  with  Ananias  :  '  This  is  all  I  can  spare ; 
indeed,  this  is  all  I  possess.'  Our  sin,  and  our 
danger  of  death  in  our  giving,  lie  not  so  much 
in  that  we  have  given  less  than  we  could  have 
given,  but  in  that  we  have  not  told  the  truth. 
"Yea,  for  so  much,"  we  say,  till  the  feet  of  the 
young  men  are  almost  at  our  door.  The  stroke 
was  sudden  and  severe  to  the  onlookers,  but  it  was 
not  at  all  so  sudden  or  so  severe  to  Ananias  and 
Sapphira  themselves.  It  was  not  so  unexpected 
and  without  warning  to  them.  There  were  many 
provocations  and  aggravations  on  their  part  of 
which  we  are  quite  ignorant.  Ananias  may  at 
one  time  have  been  a  poor  man's  son,  and  when 
he  came  up  to  Jerusalem  in  his  youth  to  push  his 
fortune,  he  may  have  knelt  down  on  the  side  or 
Olivet  and  said,  *  Thy  vows  are  upon  me,  O  God. 
And  if  Thou  wilt  give  me  bread  to  eat,  and  raiment 
to  put  on,  and  a  wife  and  children  in  Jerusalem, 
then  the  Lord  shall  be  my  God,  and  the  God  of 
my  household.'  Or,  again,  in  some  time  of  ad- 
versity he  may  have  said,  "  The  pains  of  hell  gat 
hold  upon  me  ;  but  I  will  pay  that  which  my  mouth 
spake  when  I  was  in  trouble."  Or,  again,  in  those 
sweet  but  soul-deceiving  days  when  they  were  bride- 
groom and  bride  together ;  in  those  Beulah  days — 


ANANIAS  AND  SAPPHIRA  igs 

"  As  for  me  and  my  house,  we  will  serve  the  Lord. 
Like  David,  we  will  walk  with  a  perfect  heart  in  all 
our  household  affairs  at  home."  Ah,  yes ;  God  was 
no  doubt  quite  sufficiently  justified  to  Ananias  and 
Sapphira  themselves,  when  He  judged  them  so  swiftly 
that  day.  At  the  same  time,  Jeremy  Taylor,  who 
has  given  immense  learning  and  intellect  to  all  such 
cases,  says  that  God  sometimes  accepts  a  temporal 
death  in  room  of  an  eternal.  And  that,  to  some 
persons,  a  sudden  death  stands  instead  of  a  long 
and  an  explicit  repentance.  While  Augustine,  I 
see,  and  some  other  great  authorities,  are  bold 
to  class  the  awful  case  of  Ananias  and  Sapphira 
under  that  scripture  of  the  apostle  where  he  assures 
us  that  some  church  members  are  delivered  unto 
Satan  for  the  destruction  of  the  flesh,  so  that  the 
spirit  may  be  saved  in  the  day  of  the  Lord  Jesus. 
Let  us  join  with  Augustine  and  Taylor  in  their 
burial-service  over  Ananias  and  Sapphira  in  the 
trembling  hope  that  they  were  struck  down  in  a 
sanctifying  discipline,  rather  than  in  an  everlasting 
condenmation.  And  that  they  so  died  that  we 
might  learn  of  them  so  to  live  as  not  to  die. 
Let  us  hope  that  both  husband  and  wife  had  the 
root  of  the  matter  in  them  all  the  time ;  and  that 
we  shall  see  them  also  saved  in  that  day,  in  spite 
of  Satan  and  all  his  fatal  entrances  into  their  hearts. 
The  Lord  rebuke  thee,  O  Satan,  is  not  this  a  brand 
plucked  out  of  the  fire  ? 

And  now  to  come  home  to  ourselves.  As  you 
all  know,  we  have  an  institution  in  full  operation  in 
the  Free  Church  of  Scotland  which  is  based  and 

N 


194  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

built  up  and  worked  out  on  exactly  Pentecostal  and 
Barnabas  principles.  Dr.  Chalmers's  conception  of 
the  Sustentation  Fund  was  derived  and  developed 
from  the  spirit  and  the  example  of  the  Apostolic 
Church  of  Jerusalem.  The  same  Pentecostal  spirit 
was  poured  out  at  the  Disruption  of  the  Established 
and  Endowed  Church  of  Scotland,  to  support  the 
Free  Church  of  Scotland  under  her  injuries  and  her 
impoverishments  for  Christ's  sake,  and  for  the  sake 
of  His  people.  And  thus  it  was  that  the  ministers 
and  deacons'  courts  of  the  Free  Church  were  then, 
and  are  still,  all  of  one  mind  and  spirit,  and  have 
all  things  in  common.  And  that  same  Pentecostal 
spirit  breathes  and  burns,  and  that  same  Apostolic 
institution  still  stands  and  extends  and  expands,  to 
this  day.  And  still  the  Prophetic  and  Apostolic 
benediction  is  pronounced  over  the  Free  Church 
and  her  liberal- hearted  people — "  Bring  ye  all  the 
tithes  into  the  storehouse,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts, 
and  prove  Me  now  herewith,  if  I  will  not  open  the 
windows  of  heaven,  and  pour  you  out  a  blessing, 
that  there  shall  not  be  room  enough  to  receive  it." 
"  Prove  Me  now  herewith,"  said  the  Lord.  And 
He  has  promised  that  when  we  prove  Him  with  our 
tithes,all  manner  of  prosperity  will  follow  our  practice 
of  that  Scriptural  rule  and  pattern.  And  the  rule  is 
not  a  Scriptural  one  only.  Somehow  or  other,  the 
tithe,  the  tenth  part,  fills  all  classical  literature,  as 
well  as  the  whole  of  Holy  Scripture.  And  yet,  with 
all  that  before  our  eyes,  as  plain  as  plain  can 
be,  here  we  are,  at  this  time  of  day,  blundering 
about  and  telling  lies,  many  of  us,  like  Ananias 


ANANIAS  AND  SAPPHIRA  195 

and  Sapphira,  without  any  method,  or  principle, 
or  rule  in  our  givings,  any  more  than  if  Scripture 
had  never  spoken  on  this  matter,  or  as  if  a 
rule  of  love  and  common-sense  had  never  been 
laid  down.  Till  we  waken  up,  and  take  the 
Patriarchal,  and  Mosaic,  and  Prophetic,  and  Apo- 
stolic, and  even  Pagan  way  of  taxing  our  income, 
and  laying  aside  a  definite  and  a  liberal  part  of  it 
for  church  and  charity,  w^e  need  never  expect  to 
inherit  the  promises,  or  to  enter  into  that  liberty  of 
heart  and  hand  which  awaits  us  and  our  children.  It 
is  surely  time  that  we  had  found  out  some  better 
way  than  our  present  haphazard  way  of  dealing 
with  this  great  and  pressing  matter.  For  every- 
thing comes  on  us  in  this  city.  All  Scotland,  all 
Ireland,  and  many  parts  even  of  rich  England; 
France,  Switzerland,  Italy;  churches,  manses,  mis- 
sions— everything  comes  on  Edinburgh,  and  on  a 
limited  field  of  Edinburgh.  When  some  great 
financial  genius,  say,  like  Dr.  Chalmers,  arises  in 
the  Church  to  expound  and  enforce  this  disastrously 
neglected  law  of  God,  a  new  day  will  dawn  on  our 
whole  religious  and  charitable  exchequer.  Then 
the  Christian  child  will  be  brought  up  to  tithe  his 
pocket-money  of  sixpence  a  week  for  Jesus  his 
Saviour^s  sake.  And  his  father  his  pound  a  week, 
or  his  ten  pounds,  or  his  hundred,  or  his  thousand. 
And,  then,  all  we  shall  have  to  do,  without  straining 
our  hearts  or  souring  our  tempers,  will  be  calmly, 
and  at  our  leisure,  to  exercise  our  best  discretion 
as  to  the  proportion  and  the  destination  of  the 
stewardship-money  we  have  had  intrusted  to   us. 


196  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

And,  when  that  Apostolic  day  dawns,  our  successors 
in  the  churches  and  charities  of  the  land  will  look 
back  with  amazement  at  our  poverty-stricken  ways 
of  collecting  church  money,  leaning  on  State  endow- 
ments, and  all  such  like  un -Pentecostal  expedients. 
And  all  because  our  eyes  had,  somehow,  not  been 
opened  to  Scriptural  wisdom,  and  to  Scriptural  love, 
and  to  Scriptural  liberality,  in  this  whole  matter  of 
our  Lord's  money. 


SIMON  MAGUS  197 


xcn 

SIMON  MAGUS 

UT  who,  to  begin  with,  was  Simon 
Magus  ?  And  how  did  it  come  about 
that  he  believed,  and  was  actually 
baptized  by  Philip  the  evangelist; 
and  then  was  detected,  denounced 
and  utterly  reprobated  by  the  Apostle  Peter? 
How  did  all  that  come  about  ? 

Well,  you  must  know  that  Samaria,  where  Simon 
Magus  lived  and  carried  on  his  astounding  imposi- 
tions, was  a  half-Hebrew,  half-heathen  country. 
Samaria  had  just  enough  of  the  Hebrew  blood  in 
its  veins  to  make  it  full  of  the  very  worst  qualities 
of  that  blood,  mixed  up  with  some  of  the  very  worst 
qualities  of  the  heathen  blood  of  that  day  also. 
And  Simon  Magus  was  at  once  the  natural  pro- 
duct, and  the  divine  punishment,  of  that  apostate 
land  in  which  we  find  him  living  in  such  mounte- 
bank prosperity.  Simon  Magus  was  a  very  clever 
man,  and  he  was  at  the  same  time  a  very  bad  man ; 
till,  by  his  tremendous  pretensions,  he  had  the 
whole  of  Samaria  at  his  feet.  There  was  some- 
thing positively  sublime  about  the  impudence  and 
charlatanry  of  Simon  Magus,  till  he  was  actually 


198  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

feared  and  obeyed  and  worshipped  as  nothing  short 
of  some  divinity  who  had  condescended  to  come 
and  take  up  his  abode  in  Samaria.  But  the  whole 
man  and  the  whole  situation  is  best  set  before  us  in 
the  two  or  three  strokes  of  the  sacred  writer. 
"There  was  a  certain  man  called  Simon,  which 
beforetime  in  the  same  city  used  sorcery,  and 
bewitched  the  people  of  Samaria,  giving  out  that 
himself  was  some  great  one.  To  whom  they  all 
gave  heed,  from  the  least  to  the  greatest,  saying, 
This  man  is  the  great  power  of  God.  And  to  him 
they  had  regard,  because  that  of  long  time  he  had 
bewitched  them  with  sorceries.  But  when  they 
believed  Philip  preaching  the  things  concerning  the 
kingdom  of  God,  and  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ, 
they  were  baptized,  both  men  and  women.  Then 
Simon  himself  believed  also ;  and  when  he  was 
baptized,  he  continued  with  Philip  and  wondered, 
beholding  the  miracles  and  signs  which  were  done.'' 
Philip  had  extraordinary  success  in  his  evangelising 
mission  to  Samaria.  It  was  like  New  England,  or 
Cambuslang,  or  1859-60,  or  Moody  and  Sankey's 
first  visit  to  Scotland.  For  the  people  with  one 
accord  gave  heed  unto  those  things  that  Philip 
spake,  hearing  and  seeing  the  miracles  which  he 
did.  And  there  was  great  joy  in  that  city.  '  The 
very  devil  himself  has  been  converted  and  has  been 
baptized  by  me,'  Philip  telegraphed  to  Jerusalem. 
'  I  actually  have  the  name  of  Simon  Magus  on 
my  communion-roll.'  At  the  hearing  of  that,  the 
apostles  sent  two  of  their  foremost  men  down  to 
Samaria  to  superintend  the  great  movement,  and 


SIMON  MAGUS  199 

God  sent  the  Holy  Ghost  with  them,  till  the  whole 
of  Samaria  seemed  to  have  turned  to  God  and  to 
the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  Only,  Simon  Magus 
was  all  the  time  such  an  impostor  that  in  his  con- 
version and  baptism  he  had  completely  deceived 
Philip.  Nay,  I  think  it  but  fair  to  Simon  Magus 
to  say  that  he  had  completely  deceived  himself  as 
well  as  Philip.  I  think  so.  I  am  bound  in  charity 
to  think  so.  When  Simon  Magus  came  up  out  of 
the  water,  had  a  voice  from  heaven  spoken  at  that 
moment,  it  would  surely  have  been  heard  to  say, 
'This  is  an  arch-deceiver,  deceiving,  but,  at  the 
same  time,  being  deceived.'  Some  men  have  far 
more  self-discernment  than  other  men,  and  self- 
discernment  is  the  highest  and  rarest  science  of 
all  the  sciences  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  And, 
usually,  there  is  united  with  great  self-discernment, 
and  as  a  reward  and  a  premium  put  by  God  upon 
its  exercise,  the  power  of  deeply  discerning  other 
men's  spirits  also.  Now,  though  Philip  was  a  prince 
of  evangelistic  preachers,  and  a  good  and  an  able 
man,  at  the  same  time  he  was  far  too  easily 
satisfied  with  his  converts.  Philip  was  far  better 
at  preaching  than  he  was  at  catechising.  And 
thus  it  was  that  it  fell  to  Peter  and  John  to  purge 
Philip's  communion-roll  of  Simon  Magus  immedi- 
ately on  their  arrival  in  Samaria.  At  the  same 
time,  this  must  be  said,  that  Simon  Magus  had 
never  come  out  in  his  true  colours  till  after  Peter's 
arrival,  and  till  after  all  the  true  converts  had 
received  the  Holy  Ghost. 

The  circumstances  were   these:    It  was  part  of 


200  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

the  Pentecostal  equipment  of  the  apostles  to  possess 
for  a  time  some  of  the  miracle-working  powers  that 
their  Divine  Master  had  exercised  in  order  to  arrest 
attention  to  His  advent,  and  to  secure  a  hearing  to 
His  ministry.  And  thus  it  is  that  we  find  the 
apostles  speaking  with  tongues,  healing  the  sick, 
opening  the  eyes  of  the  blind,  casting  out  devils, 
and  many  suchlike  miracles  and  signs.  Now,  Simon 
Magus,  like  everybody  else  in  Samaria,  was  im- 
mensely impressed  with  all  that  he  saw  and  heard. 
No  man  was  more  impressed  than  Simon  Magus,  or 
more  convinced  of  the  divine  mission  of  the  apostles. 
But,  with  all  his  wonder  and  with  all  his  conviction, 
he  was  never  truly  converted.  The  love  of  money, 
and  the  still  more  intoxicating  love  of  notoriety, 
had  taken  such  absolute  possession  of  Simon  Magus 
that  he  simply  could  not  live  out  of  the  eyes  of  men. 
He  must  be  in  men's  mouths.  He  must  have  a 
crowd  around  him.  Themistocles  could  not  sleep 
because  of  the  huzzas  that  filled  the  streets  of  Athens 
when  Miltiades  walked  abroad ;  and  the  crowds  that 
followed  Peter  and  John  were  gall  and  wormwood 
to  Simon  Magus.  For,  still  greater  crowds  used  to 
take  him  up  and  carry  him  on  their  shoulders  in 
the  days  of  his  great  power  before  Philip  came  to 
Samaria.  Now,  Peter  had  never  liked  the  look  of 
Philip's  great  convert,  and  it  completely  justified 
Peter  s  incurable  suspicions  when  Simon  Magus  came 
one  night  into  Peter's  lodgings,  and,  setting  down  a 
bag  of  money  on  the  table,  said, '  What  will  you  take 
for  the  Holy  Ghost  ?  If  you  will  show  me  the  secret 
of  your  apostleship  so  that  I  may  work  your  miracles 


SIMON  MAGUS  «01 

like  you,  I  have  plenty  of  money,  and  I  know  where 
there  is  plenty  more.'  The  sight  of  the  bag,  and 
the  blasphemous  proposal  of  the  owner  of  the  bag, 
nearly  drove  Peter  beside  himself.  And  the  old 
fisherman  so  blazed  out  at  the  poor  mountebank 
that  the  page  burns  red  to  this  day  with  Peter's 
denunciation.  "Thy  money  perish  with  thee,  for 
I  perceive  thou  art  still  in  the  gall  of  bitterness,  and 
in  the  bond  of  iniquity !  "*' 

"  Giving  out  that  himself  was  some  great  one.'*' 
That  is  our  first  lesson  from  this  Holy  Scripture 
about  Simon  Magus.  Let  those  take  the  lesson  to 
heart  who  specially  need  it,  and  who  will  humble 
themselves  to  receive  it.  It  may  be  in  sorcery  and 
witchcraft  like  that  of  Simon  Magus ;  it  may  be  in 
the  honours  of  the  kingdom  of  Heaven  like  the  sons 
of  Zebedee ;  it  may  be  in  preaching  sermons ;  it  may 
be  in  making  speeches  or  writing  books ;  it  may  be 
in  anything  you  like,  down  to  your  child's  possessions 
and  performances ;  but  we  all,  to  begin  with,  give 
ourselves  out  to  be  some  great  one.  Simon  Magus 
was  but  an  exaggerated  specimen  of  every  popularity- 
hunter  among  us.  There  is  an  element  and  first 
principle  of  Simon  Magus,  the  Samaritan  mounte- 
bank, in  all  public  men.  There  is  still  a  certain 
residuum  of  Simon  left  in  order  to  his  last  sanctifi ca- 
tion in  every  minister.  But  the  most  Simon  Magus- 
like of  all  sanctified  ministers  I  know  is  Thomas 
Shepard,  and  that  just  because  he  is  the  most  self- 
discerning,  the  most  honest,  and  the  most  outspoken 
about  himself  of  us  all.  Popularity  was  the  very 
breath  of  life  to  that  charlatan  of  Samaria.     He 


202  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

could  not  work,  he  could  not  live,  he  could  not  be 
converted  and  baptized,  without  popularity.  And 
there  is  not  one  public  man  in  a  thousand,  politician 
or  preacher,  who  will  go  on  living  and  working  and 
praying  out  of  sight,  and  all  the  time  with  sweet- 
ness, and  contentment,  and  good-will,  and  a  quiet 
heart.  All  Samaria  must  give  heed  to  Simon  Magus 
from  the  least  to  the  greatest.  And  so  still  with 
his  successors.  A  despairing  missionary  to  the 
drunken  navvies  on  a  new  railway,  complained  to 
me  the  other  day  that  one  of  our  great  preachers, 
who  was  holidaying  in  the  neighbourhood,  would 
not  give  an  idle  Sabbath  afternoon  hour  to  the  men 
loitering  about  the  bothy  door.  It  was  the  dregs 
of  Simon  Magus  in  the  city  orator ;  he  could  not 
kindle  but  to  a  crowd.  "  Seek  obscurity "  was 
Fenelon's  motto.  Whether  he  lived  up  to  his 
motto  or  no,  the  day  will  declare ;  if  he  did,  there 
will  not  be  many  wearing  the  same  crown  with  him 
on  that  day.  But  Richard  Baxter  will  be  one  of 
them.  "  I  urn  much  less  regardful  of  the  approba- 
tion of  men,  and  set  much  lighter  by  contempt  or 
applause,  than  I  did  long  ago.  All  worldly  things 
appear  most  vain  and  unsatisfactory  when  we  have 
tried  them  most.  But  though  I  feel  that  this  hath 
some  hand  in  the  effect,  yet  the  knowledge  of  man's 
nothingness,  and  of  God's  transcendent  greatness, 
with  whom  it  is  that  I  have  most  to  do,  and  the 
sense  of  the  brevity  of  human  things,  and  the  nearness 
of  eternity,  are  the  principal  causes  of  this  effect,  and 
not  self-conceitedness  and  morosity,  as  some  sup- 
pose."   These  things  will  help  to  do  it,  but  above 


SIMON  MAGUS  203 

all  these  things  a  completely  broken  heart  will  alone 
cast  Simon  Magus  out  of  us  ministers.  A  heart 
broken  beyond  all  mollification  or  binding  up  in 
this  world ;  but  not  even  a  broken  heart,  unless  it  is 
daily  broken.  Nothing  will  root  the  mountebank 
out  of  us  ministers  but  constant  self-detection,  con- 
stant self-contempt,  constant  self-denunciation,  and 
constant  self-destruction.  Oh,  my  friends,  you  do 
not  know,  and  you  are  not  fit  to  be  told,  the  tre- 
mendous price  of  a  minister's  salvation.  It  is  this 
that  makes  our  crucified  Master  say  to  us  ministers 
continually,  "  Few  of  you  there  be  that  find  it." 

You  will  not  know  what  a  "  law-work "  is ;  but 
Simon  Magus  was  simply  lost  for  want  of  a  law- work. 
You  never  nowadays  hear  the  once  universal  pulpit 
word.  The  Romans  and  the  Galatians  are  full  of 
the  law- work,  and  so  have  all  our  greatest  preachers 
been.  Those  two  great  evangelical  Epistles  were 
not  yet  written,  but  there  was  enough  of  their  con- 
tents in  the  Pentecostal  air,  if  Simon  Magus  had 
had  any  taste  for  such  soul-searching  matters.  I 
must  not  allow  myself  to  say  a  single  word  as  to 
Philip's  mismanagement  of  his  catechumens'  and 
young  communicants'  classes.  Only,  the  sorcerer 
must  have  sadly  bewitched  the  evangelist  before 
Philip  put  Simon  Magus's  name  down  on  his  com- 
munion-roll. Philip  knew  his  business  and  his  own 
heart.  I  dare  not  doubt  that.  Only,  somehow  or 
other,  he  let  Simon  Magus  slip  through  his  hands 
much  too  easily.  Believing,  baptism,  communion- 
table and  all,  Simon  Magus  had  neither  part  nor 
lot  in  this  matter  of  the  work  of  the  law.     I  would 


204  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

not  keep  either  a  young  communicant  or  an  old 
convert  away  from  the  table  because  he  was  not 
deeply  learned  in  all  the  Pauline  doctrines ;  but  I 
could  not  undertake  to  recommend  his  name  to  the 
kirk-session  unless  he  gave  me  some  evidence  of 
what  the  masters  of  our  science  call  the  law- work. 
He  might  never  have  heard  the  word,  and  I  would 
never  mention  it  to  him  unless,  indeed,  he  was  a 
man  of  some  mind.  But  it  is  mocking  God,  and 
deluding  men,  to  crowd  the  table  with  communicants 
like  Simon  Magus,  who  do  not  know  the  first  prin- 
ciples either  of  sin  or  of  salvation.  The  best  law- 
work  comes  to  us  long  after  conversion  and  admission 
to  the  table ;  but  neither  before  his  so-called  con- 
version, nor  after  it,  did  this  arch-impostor  know 
anything  about  it — "for  thy  heart,"'''  said  Peter, 
tearing  it  open  to  its  very  core,  "  is  not  right  in  the 
sight  of  God.^' 

"  Fictus,"'  that  is  to  say,  a  living  and  breathing 
fiction,  was  the  name  given  to  such  converts  as 
Simon  Magus  in  those  early  days.  Ignorance, 
Temporary,  Pliable,  and  Turnaway,  were  some  of 
their  names  in  later  days.  Now,  you  are  not  an 
impostor  by  profession  like  Simon  Magus.  You  do 
not  make  your  living  by  deluding  other  people. 
But  there  may  very  easily  be  an  element  of  fiction, 
of  self-delusion  and  self-imposition,  in  your  supposed 
conversion,  as  there  was  in  his.  Calvin''s  moderation, 
saneness  of  judgment,  and  spiritual  insight,  carry 
me  with  him  here  also.  "  I  am  not  of  their  mind,^* 
he  says,  "  who  think  that  Simon  Magus  made  only 
a  semblance  of  religion.     There  is  a  middle  ground 


SIMON  MAGUS  205 

between  saving  faith  and  sheer  dissimulation.  Simon 
Magus  saw  that  the  apostles'  doctrine  was  true,  and 
he  received  the  same  so  far;  but  the  groundwork 
was  all  along  wanting  ;  that  is  to  say,  his  denial  of 
himself  was  all  along  wanting.*"  Just  so.  I  see  and 
feel  Calvin''s  point.  Your  religion  is  not  all  a  sham 
on  your  part.  You  are  not  a  pure  and  unmixed 
hypocrite.  But  neither  is  your  religion  of  the  right 
kind.  It  is  not  saving  your  soul.  It  is  not  making 
you  every  day  a  new  and  another  man.  Your  heart 
is  not  right  in  the  sight  of  God.  It  is  not,  and  it 
never  will  be,  till,  as  Calvin  says,  and  as  Christ  says, 
you  deny  yourself  daily.  And  that,  every  day,  to 
your  heart's  blood,  and  in  the  matter  of  the  sin  that 
so  easily  besets  you.  With  Simon  Magus  it  was  the 
praise  of  men,  and  their  crowding  round  him,  and 
their  adulation  of  him.  Now,  what  he  should  have 
done,  and  what  Philip  should  have  insisted  on  him  to 
do,  was  to  discover  to  himself  and  to  confess  to  him- 
self his  besetting  sin,  and  every  day  to  drive  another 
nail  of  self-crucifixion  into  it.  Another  new  nail 
every  day,  till  it  gave  up  the  ghost.  Instead  of 
that  the  poor  impostor  tried  to  get  Peter  to 
share  his  apostolic  popularity  with  him  for  thirty 
pieces  of  silver !  If  you  are  a  platform,  or  a  pulpit, 
or  any  other  kind  of  mountebank,  seek  obscurity, 
for  your  souFs  salvation  lies  there.  If  you  are  a 
popular  preacher,  flee  from  crowded  churches,  and 
hold  services  in  bothies,  and  in  poorhouses,  and  in 
barns,  and  in  kitchens.  Never  search  the  papers  to 
see  what  they  are  saying  about  you.  Starve  the 
self-seeking  quack  that  is  still  within  you.    Beat  him 


206  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

black  and  blue,  as  Paul  tells  us  he  did,  and  as 
Thomas  Shepard  tells  us  he  did,  every  time  he 
shows  his  self-admiring  face. 

Simon  Magus  put  the  thought  of  his  heart  into 
the  form  of  a  money-proposal  to  Peter.  But,  bad 
as  the  proposal  was,  it  was  not  so  much  the  pro- 
posal that  Peter  so  struck  at  as  the  heart  of  the 
proposer.  "  If  perhaps  the  thought  of  thine  heart 
may  be  forgiven  thee."  Now,  answer  this,  as  we 
shall  all  answer  it  one  day  —  What  about  the 
thoughts  of  your  heart?  Are  the  self-seeking, 
self-exalting  thoughts  of  your  heart  dwelt  on  and 
indulged,  or  are  they  the  greatest  shame  to  you, 
and  the  greatest  torment  to  you,  of  your  life  ?  Do 
you  hate  your  own  heart  as  you  would  hate  hell  itself, 
if  you  were  about  to  be  cast  down  into  it  ?  Do  you 
beat  your  breast  and  cry  out.  Oh,  wretched  man 
that  I  am  !  Has  the  law  entered,  and  is  the  law- 
work  deep  enough,  and  spiritual  enough,  to  make 
all  the  Simon  Magus-like  thoughts  of  your  hearts  to 
be  an  inward  pain  and  shame  to  you  past  all  know- 
ledge, and  past  all  belief  about  you,  of  mortal  man  ? 
His  thoughts,  that  is,  of  self-advertisement,  self- 
exaltation,  and  self -congratulation?  Does  the 
praise  of  men  pufF  you  up,  and  make  you  very 
happy  ?  And  is  their  silence,  or  their  absence, 
something  you  cannot  get  over?  Is  he  a  good 
man  who  follows  you  about,  and  believes  in  you, 
and  applauds  you :  and  is  he  an  unpardonably  bad 
man  who  prefers  Philip,  and  Peter,  and  John  to 
Simon  Magus?  Then,  be  not  deceived,  God  is 
not  mocked,  and  neither  are  the  self-discerning  men 


SIMON  MAGUS  207 

round  about  you.  Both  your  happiness  and  your 
sadness :  both  your  love  and  your  hatred  of  men ; 
are  quite  naked  and  open  to  those  with  whom  you 
have  to  do.  "  For  I  perceive  that  thou  art  still  in 
the  gall  of  bitterness,  and  in  the  bond  of  iniquity.**' 
"We  may  conjecture,"  says  Calvin,  "that  Simon 
Magus  repented."  Whereas  Bengel  leaves  it  to 
the  last  day  to  discover  that  and  to  declare  that. 


208  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 


XCIII 
THE  ETHIOPIAN  EUNUCH 

UR  Lord  gave  the  Pharisees  of  His  day 
this  praise,  that  they  would  compass 
sea  and  land  to  make  one  proselyte. 
Now,  this  Ethiopian  eunuch  was  one 
of  their  proselytes.  Like  the  Scotch 
and  English  of  our  own  day,  the  Jews  of  our  Lord's 
day  compassed  sea  and  land  to  make  money ;  but, 
almost  more,  to  make  converts  to  Moses  and  Aaron. 
Bent  as  their  hearts  were  on  making  a  fortune,  the 
Jews  of  that  day  were  almost  more  bent  on  spreading 
the  faith  of  Abraham,  and  the  hope  of  their  fathers. 
And  it  would  be  in  his  business  relations  with  the 
heads  of  some  of  the  trading  and  banking  houses 
that  the  Jewish  merchants  had  set  up  in  Ethiopia, 
that  Queen  Candace's  treasurer  came  into  contact 
with  the  worshippers  of  Jehovah,  till  it  all  ended 
in  his  becoming  a  proselyte  of  the  gate.  Think, 
then,  of  this  Ethiopian  treasurer  and  his  royal 
retinue  coming  up  all  the  way  from  the  far  south 
to  pay  his  vow,  and  to  seek  the  face  of  the  Lord  in 
His  holy  temple.  Think  you  see  his  conversion  in 
Ethiopia,  his  sojourning  for  a  season  in  Jerusalem, 
and  then  his  returning  home ;  and  these  pictures  of 


THE  ETHIOPIAN  EUNUCH  209 

him  in  your  mind  will  greatly  help  you  to  under- 
stand and  appreciate  this  remarkable  man  and  his 
remarkable  story. 

Now,  what  the  Ethiopian  eunuch  saw  and  heard 
in  Jerusalem,  and  took  home  with  him  from  Jeru- 
salem, would  almost  entirely  depend  on  the  intro- 
ductions he  brought  with  him,  and  on  the  houses 
to  which  he  teok  those  introductions.  If  an  eastern 
prince  were  to  come,  say  at  an  Assembly  time,  to 
our  own  city,  his  impressions  of  the  city  and  of  the 
country  would  entirely  depend  on  the  hands  into 
which  he  fell.  We  are  so  partitioned  off  into 
churches,  and  sects,  and  sub-sects ;  into  professions, 
and  political  parties,  and  social  castes;  into  likes 
and  dislikes ;  into  sympathies  and  into  antipathies; 
that,  if  the  Ethiopian  eunuch  had  his  first  intro- 
duction into  any  of  those  hot-beds  of  ours,  he  would 
return  home  a  total  stranger,  and  almost  an  enemy, 
to  many  of  the  best  men  and  to  much  of  the  best 
life  of  our  city  and  our  country.  Unless  indeed,  he 
had  brought  from  his  bitter  experience  of  contro- 
versy, and  faction,  and  party  spirit  in  Ethiopia,  that 
open  and  liberal  mind,  and  that  humble  and  loving 
heart,  which  no  designed  introduction  will  mislead, 
and  no  invidious  patronage  or  privilege  will  poison. 

Had  this  been  an  ordinary  Ethiopian  eunuch  he 
would  have  spent  his  holiday  among  the  theatres, 
and  circuses,  and  bazaar?,  and  other  Roman  amuse- 
ments, of  Pilate's  procuratorship.  As  it  was,  he 
may,  for  anything  we  know,  have  brought  an  intro- 
duction to  the  Roman  Procurator,  and  may  have 
been   entertained  by   Pilate's  wife  herself  in   the 

o 


216  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

Roman  Praetorium.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  much 
more  likely  that  he  was  directed  and  recommended 
to  some  of  the  heads  of  the  Temple :  to  Annas, 
or  to  Caiaphas,  or  to  some  other  ecclesiastical  digni- 
tary. You  may  make  use  of  your  own  knowledge 
of  the  condition  of  Jerusalem,  and  of  the  rank  of 
the  eunuch,  and  of  his  religious  errand,  to  choose 
for  yourselves  j  ust  where  the  Ethiopian  eunuch  was 
lodged,  and  just  in  what  light  he  saw  the  life  of 
Jerusalem.  Only,  I  fear,  with  all  his  ability,  and 
with  all  his  insight,  and  with  all  his  seriousness  of 
mind,  the  eunuch's  furlough  came  to  an  end  before 
he  had  well  begun  to  see  daylight  on  the  Pharisees 
and  the  Sadducees,  the  Essenes  and  the  Herodians, 
the  Zelots  and  the  Publicans,  the  devotees  of  Moses, 
and  the  disciples  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Was  the  Book  of  the  prophet  Isaiah  the  parting 
gift  of  his  Jerusalem  host  to  this  eastern  prince  on 
the  day  of  his  departure  home  ?  And  did  the  donor 
of  the  sacred  book,  with  an  earnest  look  and  with 
delicate  kindness,  point  out  to  his  guest  as  he 
mounted  his  chariot  steps,  the  fifty-third  and  fifty- 
sixth  chapters  of  the  evangelical  and  ecumenical 
prophet.''  Or  was  the  sacred  book  this  good 
eunuch's  own  selection.?  After  he  had  purchased 
some  of  the  rarest  specimens  of  recent  Roman  art 
for  his  royal  mistress,  did  he  seek  out  the  sacred 
scriptorium  and  price  for  himself  the  richest-set 
roll  of  the  prophet  Esaias  that  the  scribes  possessed  ? 
In  whatever  way  he  had  come  by  the  fascinating 
book,  he  was  away  out  of  the  city,  and  well  on  to 
the  border  of  the  land,  before  he  was  able  to  take 


THE  ETHIOPIAN  EUNUCH  211 

his  eyes  off  his  purchase.  The  Ethiopian  eunuch 
will  be  summoned  forward  with  his  Isaiah  in  his 
hand  at  the  last  day  to  witness  against  us  all  for 
the  books  we  buy  and  read,  and  for  the  way  we 
murder  time,  both  at  home  and  on  our  holidays, 
as  well  as  on  our  long  journeys.  Did  you  ever  see 
any  one  reading  his  Bible  in  a  railway  carriage, 
or  on  the  deck  of  a  steamboat?  Did  you  ever 
see  Isaiah,  or  Paul,  in  text  or  in  commentary, 
exposed  for  sale  on  a  railway  bookstall  ?  Oh,  no  ! 
the  very  thought  is  profanity.  We  load  our  book- 
stalls, and  our  newsboys'*  baskets,  and  our  travelling- 
bags,  with  all  the  papers  of  the  morning  and  the  even- 
ing ;  and  with  piles  of  novels  of  all  colours ;  and  with 
our  well-known  Protestant  reticence  and  reverence 
for  divine  things,  we  reserve  our  Bibles  for  home, 
and  give  up  our  Sabbath-days  to  Paul  and  Isaiah. 
One  in  a  thousand  will  break  through  and  will  re-read 
on  a  railway  journey  his  Homer  or  his  Virgil;  his 
Milton  or  his  Shakespeare ;  his  Bacon  or  his  Hooker ; 
his  A  Kempis  or  his  Bunyan ;  while  one  in  a  hun- 
dred thousand  will  venture  to  take  out  his  Psalms 
or  his  New  Testament.  "  The  great  number  of  books 
and  papers  of  amusement,  which  of  one  kind  or 
another,  daily  come  in  one's  way,  have  in  part 
occasioned,  and  most  perfectly  fall  in  with,  and 
humour,  this  idle  way  of  reading  and  considering 
things.  By  this  means  time,  even  in  solitude, 
is  happily  got  rid  of,  without  the  pain  of  attention. 
Neither  is  any  part  of  it  more  put  to  the  account 
of  idleness — one  can  scarce  forbear  saying  is  spent 
with  less  thought,  than  great  part  of  that  which  is 


212  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

spent  in  reading."  If  that  accusation  was  laid 
against  the  readers  of  1792,  how  much  more  have 
we  laid  ourselves  open  to  it  in  1899? 

But,  all  this  time  Philip  is  wandering  up  and 
down  the  wilderness,  thinking  that  he  must  have 
mistaken  his  own  imagination  for  the  voice  of  the 
Lord.  Caravans  of  pilgrims  come  and  go :  merchants 
of  Egypt  and  of  Arabia  and  cohorts  of  Roman 
soldiers .  but  all  that  only  makes  the  evangelist 
the  more  lonely  and  the  more  idle.  But,  at  last, 
a  chariot  of  distinction  comes  in  sight,  and  as  it 
comes  within  earshot  Philip  hears  with  the  utmost 
astonishment  the  swarthy  master  of  the  chariot 
reading  aloud.  Philip  was  not  astonished  at  the 
distinguished  man  reading  aloud,  but  his  astonish- 
ment and  admiration  were  unbounded  when  he 
began  to  make  out  at  a  distance  what  the  dark- 
skinned  stranger  was  reading.  "  He  was  led  as  a 
sheep  to  the  slaughter ;  and  like  a  lamb  dumb  before 
his  shearer,  so  opened  he  not  his  mouth.""  "  Under- 
standest  thou  what  thou  readest  ?  "  said  Philip,  as 
the  chariot  came  to  a  standstill.  All  this  took 
place  in  the  simple,  unsophisticated,  hospitable 
East;  and  it  must  not  be  measured  by  our  hard 
and  unbending  habits  of  intercourse  in  the  West ; 
and,  especially,  in  dour-faced  Scotland.  It  would 
be  taken  as  the  height  of  intrusion,  and,  indeed, 
impudence,  among  us  if  one  man  said  to  another 
sitting  over  his  book  on  a  journey,  "  Are  you  under- 
standing what  you  are  reading?"  But  if  we  sat 
beside  a  foreigner  who  was  struggling  with  one  of 
our  complicated  guide-books,  and  was  just  about  to 


THE  ETHIOPIAN  EUNUCH  21S 

start  off  in  a  wrong  direction,  it  would  be  no  in- 
trusion if  we  leaned  over  and  said  to  him,  '  I  fear, 
sir,  that  our  barbarous  language  is  not  easily 
mastered  by  foreign  scholars ;  but  English  is  my 
native  tongue,  and  I  belong  to  this  country.  Can 
I  be  of  any  use  to  you  ? '  "  How  can  I,"  said  the 
eunuch,  "except  some  man  should  guide  me?"' 
And  he  desired  Philip  that  he  would  come  up  and 
sit  with  him.  Had  the  eunuch  come  to  Jerusalem 
last  year  at  this  passover  time,  as  he  had  been 
urged  to  come,  and  as  he  had  at  one  time  intended 
to  come,  he  might  have  had  Philip's  Master  sitting 
beside  him  to-day  and  reading  Isaiah  with  him. 
But  the  eunuch  had  missed  that  opportunity  by 
putting  off  paying  his  vow  for  another  year.  He  was 
a  year  too  late  for  ever  seeing  Jesus  Christ  in  the 
flesh,  and  hearing  Him  open  up  Isaiah  concerning 
Himself.  But,  better  late  than  never.  Better 
meet  the  meanest  of  His  servants,  than  miss  the 
Master  altogether. 

Was  it  the  eunuch''s  own  serious  instincts,  I 
wonder,  that  led  him  to  the  fifty-third  of  Isaiah  ? 
Or  had  he  heard  that  profound  and  perplexing 
chapter  disputed  over  by  Stephen  and  Saul  in  one 
of  the  synagogues  of  Jerusalem  ?  I  cannot  tell. 
Only,  it  strikes  me,  and  it  struck  Philip,  as  a  re- 
markable fact  that  out  of  the  whole  Old  Testament 
this  utter  stranger  to  the  Old  Testament  was  pon- 
dering over  its  most  central  chapter,  and  its  most 
profound  prophecy,  as  he  rode  home  in  his  chariot. 
When  Augustine  was  a  catechumen  in  Milan,  and 
was  just  at  the  eunuch's  stage  in  the  truth,  Ambrose 


214  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

directed  his  pupil  to  the  study  of  Isaiah.  "  But  I, 
not  understanding  my  first  lesson  in  that  prophet, 
laid  it  by  to  be  resumed  when  I  was  better  prac- 
tised."*' Bunyan  also  tells  us  that  when  he  was 
beginning  to  read  his  Bible  he  much  preferred  the 
adventures  of  Joshua  and  Samson  and  Gideon  to 
Isaiah  or  Paul.  But,  explain  it  as  we  may,  this 
Ethiopian  neophyte  was  already  far  ahead  of  Bunyan, 
and  even  of  Augustine.  For  he  held  in  his  hands 
the  most  Pauline  page  in  all  the  Old  Testament, 
and  he  would  not  lay  it  down  till  he  got  to  the 
bottom  of  it.  "I  pray  thee,  of  whom  speaketh 
the  prophet  this?  of  himself,  or  of  some  other 
man?"  What  struck  the  imagination  and  the 
conscience  of  the  eunuch  was  this :  the  absolutely 
unearthly  picture  that  the  prophet  draws  of  his 
own  character  and  conduct:  if  indeed  it  is  of  his  own 
character  and  conduct  the  prophet  speaks.  "He 
was  led  as  a  sheep  to  the  slaughter,"  the  eunuch 
read  again,  '*and  like  a  lamb  dumb  before  his 
shearer,  so  opened  he  not  his  mouth."  The  eunuch 
knew  not  a  few  good,  and  humble,  and  patient, 
and  silently-suffering,  men  in  Ethiopia,  but  he  knew 
no  one  of  whom  the  half  of  these  things  could  be 
said.  And,  if  this  was  the  prophet  himself,  no 
wonder  then  at  the  reverence  in  which  both  the 
name  of  the  prophet,  and  the  name  of  his  book, 
were  held  in  Jerusalem.  '  Oh,  no !  '  said  Philip. 
'  Oh,  no,  no  !  the  prophet  did  not  speak  of  himself, 
nor  of  any  other  mortal  man.  Oh,  no,  no  !  far  from 
that !  The  prophet  was  a  man  of  like  passions 
with  other  men.     He  was  a  man  of  unclean  lips, 


THE  ETHIOPIAN  EUNUCH  ^15 

like  all  other  men.  Oh,  no !  the  prophet  did  not 
speak  of  himself,  but  of  another  manner  of  man 
altogether.  Thou  art  a  stranger  in  Jerusalem,  but 
thou  must  have  heard  something  of  the  things  that 
have  come  to  pass  there  in  these  last  days.  Thou 
must  surely  have  heard  the  name  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth ? "*  'I  did  hear  that  name,'  answered  the 
eunuch.  'I  often  heard  it.  Sometimes  I  heard 
that  name  blessed,  and  sometimes  I  heard  it  cursed. 
And  I  was  warned  that  all  the  time  I  was  in 
Jerusalem  I  must  not  once  speak  that  name,  nor 
listen  to  any  one  speaking  it  to  me.  But  we  are 
far  from  Jerusalem  here ;  and  of  whom  speaketh 
the  prophet  this.?'  "Should  we  make  it  our  first 
aim  in  the  pulpit  to  do  full  justice  to  the  subject 
we  have  in  hand ;  or  should  our  immediate  and  sole 
endeavour  be  to  do  good  to  our  hearers  ?  "  said  one 
of  my  most  thoughtful  friends  to  me  the  other 
day.  What  do  you  do  yourself?  was  my  reply  to 
him.  But  we  had  to  part  before  we  had  time  to 
argue  it  out.  Philip,  at  any  rate,  set  himself  in 
the  first  place,  and  with  all  his  might,  to  do  full 
justice  to  his  great  subject.  And  it  was  in  the 
progress  of  that  full  justice  that  the  eunuch  got 
all  the  good  that  the  best  hearer  even  in  our  day 
could  get  from  the  best  preacher.  Sometimes  the 
one  way  is  best,  in  some  hands,  and  sometimes 
the  other,  according  to  the  preacher,  according  to 
the  hearer,  and  according  to  the  subject.  For  the 
most  part  surely,  first  the  subject  thoroughly  studied 
down,  and  handled  with  our  utmost  ability  and 
finish,  and  then  application  made  with  our  utmost 


216  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

skill  and  urgency  and  love.  "Mix  your  exhorta- 
tion with  doctrine,"  said  Goodwin  to  the  divinity 
students  of  Oxford.  Better  still,  in  our  day  at  any 
rate,  begin  your  exhortation  well  with  doctrine,  and 
then  end  your  doctrine  with  its  proper  exhortation 
springing  out  of  it.  Only,  the  eunuch  did  not  wait 
for  Philip's  exhortation.  He  did  not  give  Philip 
time  to  wind  up  and  round  off  his  doctrine.  Philip's 
sermon  on  the  fifty-third  of  Isaiah  is  not  finished 
to  this  day.  "See,  here  is  water!"  broke  in  the 
eunuch.  "I  see  it!"  broke  in  a  young  Forfar- 
shire farmer  in  the  middle  of  my  prayer  with  him 
in  the  minister's  study  late  that  night  after  a  fine 
revival  meeting  conducted  by  Mr.  Low  of  Fountain- 
bridge,  and  Dr.  Macphail  of  Liverpool.  And  my 
prayer  lies  there  to  this  day,  like  Philip's  sermon, 
never  finished,  and  that  is  five-and-twenty  years 
ago.  "  I  see  it ! "  and  we  both  sprang  to  our  feet ; 
and,  instead  of  the  rest  of  my  prayer  to  God  I 
said  to  the  farmer,  "Never  lose  sight  of  it,  then. 
Never  lose  sight  of  it  all  your  days  ! "  He  did  lose 
sight  of  it,  and  went  back,  to  the  breaking  of  his 
minister's  heart.  But  the  backslider  returned,  and, 
as  I  was  told,  died  in  raptures,  exclaiming,  "  I  see 
it !  I  see  it ! "  "  See,  here  is  water ! "  exclaimed 
the  eunuch,  cutting  short  Philip's  sermon.  "  I  see 
it!"  exclaimed  the  farmer,  cutting  short  my  prayer. 
"  And  when  they  were  come  up  out  of  the  water, 
the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  caught  away  Philip,  that  the 
eunuch  saw  him  no  more ;  and  he  went  on  his  way 
rejoicing."  Rejoicing  that  those  Jewish  merchants 
had    ever    opened    their    warehouse    in    Ethiopia 


THE  ETHIOPIAN  EUNUCH  217 

Regretting  that  he  had  not  come  up  sooner  to 
Jerusalem,  when  he  might  have  seen  his  Saviour's 
face,  and  heard  His  voice.  But,  all  the  more  re- 
joicing that  he  had  not  put  off  coming  to  the 
passover  altogether.  Rejoicing  also  that  he  had 
not  talked  about  the  sights  of  Jerusalem  all  the  way 
to  Gaza,  but  had  read  all  the  way  in  the  prophet 
Isaiah.  And  rejoicing,  above  all,  that  he  had  said 
it  the  moment  it  came  into  his  heart  to  say  it, "  See, 
here  is  water ! ""  And,  still,  as  the  chariot  travelled 
its  long  stages  toward  far  Ethiopia,  the  eunuch 
thought  with  a  humble  and  a  holy  joy  of  all  the 
way  his  God  had  led  him,  and  of  the  singular  grace 
that  had  at  last  apprehended  him.  And  who  can 
tell  but  that  Queen  Candace,  and  a  great  multitude 
of  her  black,  but  comely  people,  will  yet  be  seen 
by  us  stretching  out  their  hands  and  casting  their 
crowns  at  His  feet  of  whom  Isaiah  spake,  and  of 
whom  Philip  preached ! 

Let  it  no  longer  be  a  forlorn  hope 

To  wash  an  Ethiope  ; 
He 's  washed  :  his  gloomy  skin  a  peaceful  shade 

For  his  white  soul  is  made. 
And  now,  I  doubt  not,  the  Eternal  Dove, 

A  black-faced  house  will  love. 


«18  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 


XCIV 

GAMALIEL 

EAD  for  the  first  time,  and  looked  en 
on  the  surface,  Gamaliers  speech  in 
the  council  of  Jerusalem  was  both  an 
able  and  a  successful  performance. 
The  argument  of  the  speech  carried 
the  consent  of  the  whole  council — not  an  easy  thing 
to  do — for  Peter  had  just  cut  the  whole  council  to 
the  heart.  But  Gamaliel  calmed  the  whole  council ; 
he  reassured  the  most  hesitating;  and  he  all  but 
satisfied  the  most  bloodthirsty;  till  the  whole 
Sanhedrim  broke  up  that  day  with  loud  and 
universal  congratulations  pronounced  upon  the 
ability  and  the  sagacity  of  Gamaliel's  speech.  But, 
in  order  to  see  what  was  the  real  and  ultimate 
value  of  Gamaliel's  speech;  and,  still  more,  in  order 
to  a  true  and  ultimate  estimate  of  Gamaliel  himself, 
let  us  look  with  some  closeness  at  the  whole  situa- 
tion with  which  Gamaliel  was  called  upon  to  deal 
that  day. 

Well,  then,  this  was  the  situation.  Gamaliel 
had  brought  forward  Theudas,  who  had  boasted 
that  he  was  somebody ;  and  Judas  of  Galilee,  who 
had    drawn   away   much   people   after    him;    and 


GAMALIEL  «19 

Gamaliel  had  made  some  good  points  in  his  speech 
by  his  references  to  those  two  dispersed  men.  But 
Jesus  Christ  was  not  a  Theudas,  nor  a  Judas  of 
Galilee,  nor  a  dispersed  man.  Jesus  Christ  was 
Jesus  Christ.  He  was  Himself,  and  not  another. 
Jesus  Christ  had  been  promised  in  every  page  of  the 
law  and  the  prophets  and  the  psalms,  all  of  which 
were  the  daily  text-books  in  Gamaliel's  school.  And 
Jesus  Christ  had  come,  and  had  fulfilled,  and  that 
a  thousand  times  told,  every  jot  and  tittle  of  all  that 
had  been  prophesied  and  promised  concerning  Him. 
And  Gamaliel  had  been  set  in  his  high  seat  by  the 
God  of  Israel  in  order  that  he  might  watch  for  the 
coming  Messiah,  and  might  announce  His  advent 
to  the  people  of  Israel.  But,  for  some  reason  or 
other,  instead  of  recognising  and  announcing  the 
true  Christ  of  God  when  He  came,  as,  for  instance, 
John  the  Baptist  did ;  instead  of  casting  in  his  lot 
with  Jesus  of  Nazareth ;  instead  of  dissolving  his 
school  and  sending  Saul  of  Tarsus  and  all  his  other 
scholars  to  follow  the  Lamb  of  God,  Gamaliel,  for 
some  reason  or  other,  still  kept  his  seat  in  the 
Sanhedrim  all  through  the  arrest,  the  trial,  the 
crucifixion,  the  resurrection,  and  the  ascension  of 
Jesus  Christ,  and  when  Christ''s  disciples  were  on 
their  trial  for  their  lives  this  short  speech  contains 
all  that  Gamaliel  has  to  say  for  them  and  for 
himself.  We  must,  at  all  times,  and  to  all  men,  do 
as  we  would  be  done  by :  and  therefore  it  is  that 
we  seek  again  and  again  for  some  explanation,  some 
excuse,  some  apology,  for  Gamaliel's  remaining  a  V 
member  of  the  council  that  had  tried  and  crucified 


220  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

Jesus  Christ.  But,  with  all  our  search,  we  can  find 
nothing  out  of  which  to  make  a  cloak  for  Gamaliers 
case.  Had  Gamaliel  been  an  ignorant  and  an  un- 
learned man  there  might  have  been  some  excuse  for 
him.  But  Gamaliel  had  not  that  cloak  at  any  rate 
for  his  sin.  So  far  as  I  can  see  it,  the  simple  truth 
in  Gamaliel's  deplorable  case  was  this.  With  all  his 
learning,  and  with  all  his  ability,  and  with  all  his 
address,  Gamaliel  had  approached  this  whole  case 
concerning  Jesus  Christ  from  the  wrong  side;  he 
had  taken  hold  of  this  whole  business  by  the  wrong 
handle.  And  we  all  make  GamaliePs  tremendous 
and  irreparable  mistake  when  we  approach  Jesus 
Christ  and  His  cause  and  His  kingdom  on  the  side 
of  policy,  and  when  we  handle  Him  as  a  matter 
open  to  argument  and  debate.  He  is  not  a  matter 
of  argument  and  debate ;  He  is  an  ambassador  of 
reconciliation.  We  are  simply  not  permitted  to  sit 
in  judgment  on  Almighty  God,  and  on  His  message 
of  mercy  to  us.  He  who  sends  that  message  to  us 
is  our  Maker  and  our  Judge.  And  Gamaliel,  with 
all  his  insight,  and  with  all  his  lawyer-like  ability, 
has  turned  all  things  completely  upside  down  when 
he  sits  in  judgment,  and  gives  this  carefully-balanced 
caution,  concerning  the  Son  of  God.     _ 

Speaking  philosophically  and  politically  and 
ecclesiastically,  Gamaliel  was  a  liberal,  and  he 
has  this  to  be  said  for  him,  that  he  was  a  liberal 
long  before  the  time.  He  was  all  for  tolera- 
tion, and  for  a  free  church  in  a  free  state,  in  an 
intolerant  and  persecuting  day.  He  was  far  in 
advance  of  his   colleagues  in  observation,  and  in 


GAMALIEL  221 

reading,  and  in  breadth  and  openness  of  mind.  He 
was  tinctured  with  the  Greek  learning  that  so  many 
of  his  class  were  now  beginning  innovatingly  to 
taste.  And  we  cannot  but  wonder  whether,  among 
all  his  stores  of  ancient  instances,  that  of  the  Greek 
Socrates  had  come  that  day  into  his  mind.  "  We 
ought  to  obey  God  rather  than  men,"  Peter  had 
just  said.  "  Whether  it  be  right  in  the  sight  of  God 
to  hearken  unto  you  rather  than  unto  Him,  judge 
ye,"  he  had  also  said.  "Athenians,"  said  Socrates, "  I 
hold  you  in  the  highest  reverence  and  love;  but  I  will 
obey  God  rather  than  you.  I  cannot  hold  my  peace, 
because  that  would  be  to  disobey  God."  And 
Socrates  continued  so  to  obey  God  till  his  self- 
examining  voice  was  put  to  silence  in  the  hemlock- 
cup.  And  much  more  must  Peter  summon  all 
Jerusalem  to  repentance  in  spite  of  the  prison  and 
the  scourge  and  the  cross.  The  Athenians,  in  their 
philosophical  and  political  liberality,  would  have  let 
Socrates  alone,  if  he  would  have  let  them  alone; 
but  not  for  his  life  could  he  do  that.  And  Peter 
was  under  a  far  surer  and  a  far  stronger  constraint 
than  Socrates.  The  one  was  the  apostle  of  truth  as 
it  is  in  the  reason,  and  in  the  conscience,  and  in 
the  self-examined  heart;  while  the  other  was  the 
apostle  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  all  that,  and  in 
Jesus  over  and  above  all  that.  The  French, 
with  their  keen,  quick,  caustic  wit,  have  coined 
a  nickname  for  those  politicians  who  neglect 
principles  and  study  the  skies  only  to  see  how  the 
wind  is  to  blow.  They  call  all  such  public  men  by 
the  biting  name  of  "  opportunists."   Now,  Gamaliel 


222  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

was  the  opportunist  of  the  council  of  Jerusalem  in 
that  day.  He  was  a  politician,  but  he  was  not  a 
true  churchman  or  statesman.  He  was  held  in 
repute  by  the  people ;  but  the  people  were  blind, 
and  they  loved  to  be  led  by  blind  leaders.  And 
Gamaliel  was  one  of  them.  For,  at  this  supreme 
crisis  of  his  nation's  history,  when  there  was  not 
another  moment  to  lose,  this  smooth-tongued 
opportunist  came  forward  full  of  wise  saws  and 
modern  instances.  But  the  flood  was  out,  and  the 
time  was  past,  if  ever  there  was  a  time  for  such  fatal 
counsellors  as  Gamaliel.  His  own  opportunity  has 
of  late  been  passing  with  lightning-speed  :  and,  now, 
when  God,  in  His  long-suffering,  has  given  Gamaliel 
his  last  opportunity,  he  deals  with  God  and  with  his 
own  soul  as  we  here  see. 

Erasmus  and  the  Reformation  always  rise  before 
me  when  I  read  of  Gamaliel  and  study  his  character. 
Erasmus,  the  fastidious,  cautious,  cool,  almost  cold 
scholar.  Always  stepping  lightly  over  thin  ice, 
always  calculating  consequences,  and  always  missing 
the  mark.  Convinced  of  the  truth,  but  a  timid 
friend  to  the  truth.  Clear-eyed  enough  to  see  the 
truth,  but  built  without  a  brow  for  it.  Lavater 
thus  analyses  Holbein'*s  portrait  of  Erasmus,  and  as 
we  read  the  remarkable  analysis  we  see  in  it  a  replica 
of  Gamaliel's  portrait. — "  The  face  is  expressive  of 
the  man.  There  is  a  pose  of  feature  indicative  of 
timidity,  hesitancy,  circumspection.  There  is  in  the 
eye  the  calm  serenity  of  the  acute  observer  who  sees 
and  takes  in  all  things.  The  half-closed  eye,  of  such 
a  depth  and  shape,  is  surely  such  as  always  belongs 


GAMALIEL  523 

to  the  subtle  and  clever  schemer.  That  nose, 
according  to  all  my  observation,  is  assuredly  that  of 
a  man  of  keen  intellect  and  delicate  sensibility. 
The  furrows  on  the  brow  are  usually  no  favourable 
token  :  they  are  almost  invariably  the  sign  of  some 
weakness,  some  carelessness,  some  supineness,  some 
laxness  of  character.  We  learn,  however,  from  this 
portrait  that  they  are  to  be  found  in  some  great 
men.""  Altogether  a  man  of  maxims  and  not  of 
morals ;  a  man,  as  he  said  of  himself,  who  had  no 
inclination  to  die  for  the  truth  :  a  man,  as  Luther 
said  of  him,  in  whose  estimation  human  things  stood 
higher  than  divine  things  :  a  man,  two  men,  Gamaliel 
and  Erasmus,  a  large  class  of  men.  "  Speak  not  of 
them,*"  said  the  master,  "  but  look  at  them  and  pass 
them  by.'' 

Young  men !  with  your  life  still  before  you, 
Gamaliel,  the  fluent  and  applauded  opportunist,  is 
here  written  with  a  special  eye  to  your  learning. 
Make  your  choice.  It  is  an  awful  thing  to  say,  but 
it  is  the  simple  truth ;  God  and  His  Son,  His  church 
and  His  gospel.  His  cause  and  His  kingdom,  all 
stand  before  your  door  at  this  moment,  waiting  for 
your  choice  and  your  decision.  Gamaliel  decided, 
and  his  day  is  past,  and  he  is  in  his  own  place.  And 
now  is  your  day  of  decision.  Everlasting  and 
irremediable  issues  for  you  and  for  others  depend  on 
this  day's  decision.  Make  up  your  minds.  Take 
the  step.  Take  sides  with  Peter  and  John.  Take 
sides  with  Jesus  Christ.  And,  as  time  goes  on, 
having  taken  that  side,  that  step  will  solve  for  you 
a  thousand  perplexities,  and  will  deliver  you  from  a 


224  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

thousand  snares.  You  will  be  the  children  of  the 
light  and  of  the  day:  and  you  will  walk  in  the 
light  when  other  men  all  around  you  are  stumbling 
in  darkness,  and  know  not  whither  they  are  going. 
Suppose  that  you  had  been  Gamaliel,  and  act  now 
as  you  so  clearly  see  how  he  should  have  acted 
then. 

This  is  our  sacrament  evening,  and  we  have  come 
to  Gamaliel,  and  to  his  choice,  and  to  his  speech, 
not  inopportunely,  as  I  think,  for  our  ensample  on 
such  an  evening.  For,  what  is  a  sacrament,  and  a 
sacrament  day,  and  a  sacrament  evening?  Well, 
Gamaliel  may  very  well  have  seen  the  sacramental 
oath  taken  by  the  young  soldiers  under  the  walls  of 
Jerusalem.  At  any  rate,  if  he  had  ever  been  at 
Rome  on  a  deputation,  he  would  to  a  certainty  have 
seen  and  heard  the  Sacramentum  sworn  to  on  the 
field  of  Mars.  For  the  Sacramentum  was  the  well- 
known  military  oath  that  the  young  soldier  took 
when  he  entered  on  his  place  in  the  world-conquer- 
ing legions  of  Rome.  It  was  his  sacramental  oath 
when  he  lifted  up  his  hand  to  heaven  and  swore 
that  he  would  follow  the  eagles  of  Caesar  wherever 
they  flew ;  to  the  swamps  of  Germany,  to  the  snows  of 
Caledonia,  to  the  sands  of  Arabia,  to  the  Jordan, 
to  the  Nile,  to  the  Ganges,  to  the  Thames,  to  the 
Clyde,  to  the  Tay.  And  we,  this  day,  old  soldiers 
of  the  cross,  and  new  recruits  alike,  have  called  upon 
God  and  man  to  see  us  that  we  will  not  flinch  from 
the  cross,  but  will  follow  it  to  heat  and  cold,  to 
honour  and  shame,  to  gain  and  loss,  to  life  and 
death.     We  have  eagles  to  fight  under,  of  which  the 


GAMALIEL  225 

angels  desire  to  be  the  camp-followers.  Only,  let 
us  all  well  understand,  and  without  any  possibility 
of  mistake,  just  where  our  field  of  battle  lies ;  just 
who  and  what  is  our  enemy,  just  who  is  our  Captain, 
just  what  is  His  whole  armour,  and  just  what  hope 
He  holds  out  to  us  of  victory. 

Well,  then,  lay  this  to  heart,  that  your  battlefield 
is  not  over  the  seas:  it  is  at  home.  It  is  in  the 
family,  it  is  in  the  office,  it  is  in  the  shop,  it  is  in 
the  workshop,  it  is  at  the  breakfast  and  dinner- 
table,  it  is  in  the  class-room,  it  is  in  the  council- 
chamber.  Your  battlefield  is  just  where  you  are. 
Your  battle  follows  you  about  the  world,  and  it  is 
set  just  where  you  are  set.  And  that  is  because 
your  enemy,  and  the  enemy  of  your  Captain,  is 
yourself.  It  is  no  paradox  to  say  that ;  it  is  no 
hyperbole,  no  extravagance,  no  exaggeration.  "  The 
just  understand  it  of  their  passions,"  says  Pascal. 
That  is  to  say,  they  understand  that  their  only 
enemy  is  their  own  sensuality,  their  own  bad 
temper,  their  own  hot  and  hasty  and  unrecalled 
words,  their  own  resentment  of  injuries,  their  own 
retaliation,  their  own  revenge,  their  own  implacable 
ill-will,  their  own  envy  of  their  dearest  friend  when 
he  excels  them  in  anything — and  so  on.  What  a 
sacramental  oath  that  is,  to  swear  to  take  no  rest, 
and  to  give  God  no  rest,  till  He  has  rooted  all  these, 
and  aU  other  enemies  of  His  and  ours,  out  of  our 
heart !  But,  then,  let  us  think  of  our  Captain,  and  of 
our  armoui',  and  of  our  rations,  as  in  this  house  this 
day,  and  of  our  battle-cry,  and  of  our  sure  and 
certain  victory.     And,  then,  eye  hath  not  seen,  nor 


•^26  Bible  characters 

ear  heard,  the  things  that  God  hath  prepared  for 
him  that  overcometh.  "To  him  that  overcometh 
will  I  grant  to  sit  with  Me  in  My  throne,  even  as 
I  also  overcame,  and  am  set  down  with  My  Father 
in  His  throne.*" 


BARNABAS  227 


XCV 
BARNABAS 

AKNABAS,  I  am  afraid,  is  little  more 
than  a  bare  name  to  the  most  of  us. 
Paul  so  eclipses  every  one  of  his 
contemporaries,  that  it  is  with  the 
utmost  difficulty  we  can  get  a  glimpse 
of  any  one  but  Paul.  How  much  do  you  know 
about  Barnabas  ?  Who  was  Barnabas  ?  Why  was 
Joses  called  Barnabas.?  You  would  have  some 
difficulty,  I  am  afraid,  in  giving  answers  to  all 
these  questions.  And  I  do  not  blame  you  for 
your  ignorance  of  Barnabas.  For,  Paul  is  so  great, 
that  the  very  greatest  and  the  very  best  men  look 
but  small  when  placed  alongside  of  him.  At  the 
same  time,  there  were  great  men  before  Agamemnon, 
and  Barnabas  was  one  of  them. 

"  Barnabas,  a  Levite,  of  the  country  of  Cyprus, 
having  land,  sold  it,  and  brought  the  money,  and 
laid  it  at  the  apostles'  feet."  Cyprus  is  a  large  and 
fertile  island  situated  off  the  coast  of  Syria.  In 
ancient  times  Cyprus  was  famous  for  its  wines,  its 
wheats,  its  oils,  its  figs,  and  its  honey.  To  possess 
land  in  Cyprus  was  to  be  a  rich  and  an  influential 
man.     Many  men  who  possessed  houses  and  lands 


228  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

sold  them  under  the  Pentecostal  fervour,  and  laid 
their  prices  at  the  apostles'  feet.  But  Barnabas 
stood  at  the  head  of  them  all ;  such  was  his  great 
wealth,  such  was  his  great  generosity,  such  was  his 
high  character,  and  such  were  his  splendid  services 
in  this  and  in  many  other  ways  to  the  apostolic 
church. 

As  we  read  on  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  we 
come  to  the  sad  story  of  Ananias  and  Sapphira; 
then  to  the  creation  of  the  office  of  the  deaconship ; 
then  to  the  great  services  and  the  triumphant 
translation  of  Stephen ;  and,  then,  the  east  begins 
to  break  in  the  conversion  of  Saul  of  Tarsus.  And 
it  is  in  the  first  rays  of  that  fast-rising  sun  that  we 
see  for  once,  if  not  again,  the  full  stature  and  the 
true  nobility  of  Barnabas.  It  was  but  yesterday 
that  Saul  was  seen  setting  out  for  Damascus, 
breathing  out  threatenings  and  slaughter  against 
the  disciples  of  the  Lord.  And,  to-day,  he  has 
fled  back  to  Jerusalem,  the  most  hated,  the  most 
feared,  and  the  most  friendless  man  in  all  that  city. 
And,  with  the  blood  of  so  many  martyrs  still  on 
his  hands,  it  was  no  wonder  that  the  disciples  in 
Jerusalem  were  all  afraid  of  Saul,  and  would  not 
believe  that  he  really  intended  to  be  a  disciple. 
Saul  of  Tarsus  a  disciple  of  Jesus  Christ!  Saul 
of  Tarsus  converted,  and  baptized,  and  preaching 
Jesus  Christ!  No!  Depend  upon  it,  this  is  but 
another  deep-set  snare  for  our  feet!  This  is  but 
another  trap  baited  for  us  by  our  bitter  enemies ! 
So  all  the  disciples  said  concerning  Saul,  and  they 
all  bore  themselves  to  Saul  accordingly. 


BARNABAS  229 

Barnabas  alone  of  all  the  disciples  and  apostles 
in  Jerusalem  opened  his  door  to  Saul.  Barnabas 
alone  held  out  his  hand  to  Saul.  Barnabas  alone 
believed  Saul's  wonderful  story  of  his  conversion 
and  baptism.  Barnabas  alone  rejoiced  in  God's 
saving  mercy  to  SauPs  soul.  "  They  were  all  afraid 
of  Saul,  and  believed  not  that  he  was  a  disciple. 
But  Barnabas  took  Saul,  and  brought  him  to  the 
apostles,  and  declared  unto  them  how  he  had  seen 
the  Lord  in  the  way  to  Damascus,  and  that  the 
Lord  had  spoken  to  him,  and  how  he  had  preached 
boldly  at  Damascus  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ." 
If  Barnabas  had  never  done  anything  else  but  what 
he  did  in  those  days  for  Saul  of  Tarsus,  he  would 
deserve,  and  he  would  receive,  our  love  and  our 
honour  for  ever.  Barnabas  so  firmly  believed  what 
Saul  told  him,  and  so  nobly  acted  on  it.  He  so 
stood  up  for  Saul  when  all  men  were  looking 
askance  at  him.  He  so  trusted  and  befriended 
Saul  when  every  one  else  suspected  him,  and  cast 
his  past  life  in  his  face.  Barnabas  staked  all  his 
good  name  in  Jerusalem,  and  all  his  influence  with 
the  apostles,  on  the  genuineness  of  Saul's  conver- 
sion, and  on  the  sincerity  and  integrity  of  his 
discipleship.  Barnabas  stood  by  Saul  till  he  had 
so  turned  the  tide  in  Saul's  favour,  that,  timid  as 
Peter  was,  he  actually  took  Saul  to  lodge  with  him 
in  his  own  house  in  Jerusalem.  And  Barnabas 
gave  Saul  up  to  Peter,  only  too  glad  to  see  Saul 
made  so  much  of  by  such  a  pillar  of  the  Apostolic 
Church  as  Peter  was.  With  Saul  staying  fifteen 
days  under  Peter's  roof,  and  with  James  treating 


230  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

Saul  with  his  cautious  confidence,  Barnabas^s  battle 
for  Saul  was  now  completely  won.  Very  soon,  now, 
it  will  be  the  greatest  honour  to  any  house  on  the 
face  of  the  earth  to  entertain  the  apostle  Paul. 
But  no  proud  householder  of  them  all  can  ever 
steal  this  honour  from  Barnabas,  that  he  was  the 
first  man  of  influence  and  responsibility  who  opened 
his  heart  and  his  house  to  Saul  of  Tarsus,  when  all 
Jerusalem  was  still  casting  stones  at  him.  Barnabas 
was  not  predestinated  to  shine  in  the  service  of 
Christ  and  His  Church  like  Paul ;  but  Paul  himself 
never  did  a  more  shining  deed  than  Barnabas  did 
when  he  took  Saul  to  his  heart  at  a  time  when 
every  other  heart  in  Jerusalem  was  hardened  against 
him.  Everlastingly  well  done,  thou  true  son  of 
consolation ! 

The  scene  now  shifts  to  Antioch,  which  is  soon  to 
eclipse  Jerusalem  herself,  and  to  become  the  true 
mother-church  of  evangelical  Christianity.  The 
apostolic  preaching  had  an  instantaneous  and  an 
immense  success  at  Antioch,  and  it  was  its  very 
success  that  raised  there  also,  and  with  such  acute- 
ness,  all  those  doctrinal  and  disciplinary  disputes 
that  fill  with  such  distress  the  book  of  the  Acts, 
and  the  earlier  Epistles  of  Paul.  Jerusalem  still 
remained  the  Metropolitan  Church,  and  the  diffi- 
culties that  had  arisen  in  Antioch  were  accordingly 
sent  up  to  Jerusalem  for  advice  and  adjudication. 
And,  that  the  heads  of  the  Church  at  Jerusalem 
chose  Barnabas  out  of  the  whole  college  of  the 
apostles  to  go  down  and  examine  into  the  aflPairs 
of  Antioch,  is  just  another  illustration  of  the  high 


BARNABAS  231 

standing  that  Barnabas  had,  both  as  a  man  of 
marked  ability,  and  of  high  Christian  character. 
"Who,  when  he  came,  and  had  seen  the  grace  of 
God  was  glad,  and  exhorted  them  all,  that  with  pur- 
pose of  heart  they  would  cleave  unto  the  Lord.  For 
he  was  a  good  man,  and  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and 
faith;  and  much  people  was  added  unto  the  Lord." 
How  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost  Barnabas  was  we  are 
made  immediately  to  see.  For  Barnabas  had  not 
been  long  in  Antioch  till  he  became  convinced  that 
Antioch  was  very  soon  to  hold  the  key  of  the 
whole  Christian  position.  Already,  indeed,  so  many 
questions  of  doctrine  and  administration  were  come 
to  such  a  crisis  in  the  Church  of  Antioch,  that 
Barnabas  felt  himself  quite  unable  to  cope  with 
them.  And,  worse  than  that,  he  could  not  think 
of  any  one  in  Jerusalem  who  was  any  better  able 
to  cope  with  those  difficult  questions  than  he  was 
himself.  In  all  Barnabas's  knowledge  of  men,  and 
it  was  not  narrow,  he  knew  only  one  man  who  was 
equal  to  the  great  emergency  at  Antioch,  and  that 
man  was  no  other  than  Saul  of  Tarsus.  But,  then, 
Saul  was  comparatively  young  as  yet ;  he  was  not 
much  known,  and  he  was  not  much  trusted.  And 
shall  Barnabas  take  on  himself  the  immense  re- 
sponsibility, and,  indeed,  immense  risk,  of  sending 
for  Saul  of  Tarsus,  and  bringing  him  to  Antioch  ? 
And  shall  Barnabas  take  this  great  step  without 
first  submitting  Saul's  name  to  the  authorities  at 
Jerusalem.?  There  were  great  risks  in  both  of 
these  alternatives,  and  Barnabas  had  to  act  on  his 
own  judgment  and  conscience  and  heart.     There 


232  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

are  supreme  moments  in  the  field  when  an  officer 
of  original  genius,  and  of  the  requisite  strength  of 
character,  will  determine  to  stake  all,  and  to  do 
some  bold  deed,  on  his  own  single  responsibility. 
He  will  take  an  immense  and  an  irretrievable  step 
without  orders,  and,  sometimes,  against  orders. 
He  will  thus  win  the  battle,  and  then  he  will 
not  mind  much  either  the  praise  or  the  blame 
that  comes  to  him  for  his  successful  act  of  dis- 
obedience. Antioch  must  have  Saul  of  Tarsus ;  and 
Barnabas,  taking  counsel  with  no  one  but  himself, 
set  out  to  Tarsus  to  seek  for  Saul.  "  Leaving  France, 
I  retired  into  Germany  expressly  for  the  purpose  of 
being  able  to  enjoy  in  some  obscure  corner  the 
repose  I  had  always  desired,  and  which  had  so  long 
been  denied  me.  And  I  had  resolved  to  continue 
in  the  same  obscurity,  till  at  length  William  Farel 
detained  me  at  Geneva,  and  that  not  so  much  by 
counsel  and  exhortation,  as  by  a  dread  imprecation, 
which  I  felt  to  be  as  if  God  from  heaven  laid  His 
mighty  hand  upon  me  to  arrest  me.  For  after 
having  learned  that  my  heart  was  set  upon  devoting 
myself  to  my  private  studies,  for  which  I  wished  to 
keep  myself  free  from  all  other  engagements,  and 
finding  that  he  could  gain  nothing  by  entreating 
me,  he  proceeded  to  utter  an  imprecation  that  God 
would  curse  my  retirement,  and  would  blast  my 
selfish  studies,  if  I  should  refuse  to  come  to  Geneva 
when  the  need  was  so  great."  John  Calvin  was  Saul 
of  Tarsus  over  again.  William  Farel  was  Barnabas 
over  again.  And  the  reformed  city  of  Geneva  was 
the  evangelised  city  of  Antioch  over  again.     "  Then 


BARNABAS  iSS 

departed  Barnabas  to  Tarsus  to  seek  for  Saul.  And 
when  he  had  found  him,  he  brought  him  to  Antioch." 
To  have  the  heart  to  discover  a  more  talented  man 
than  yourself,  and  then  to  have  the  heart  to  go  to 
Tarsus  for  him,  and  to  make  way  for  him  in  Antioch, 
is  far  better  than  to  have  all  SauFs  talents,  and  all 
the  praise  and  all  the  rewards  of  those  talents  to 
yourself.  Speaking  for  myself  I  would  far  rather 
have  a  little  of  Barnabas'^s  grace  than  have  all  Saul's 
genius.  Give  me  Barnabas's  self-forgetful  heart, 
and  let  who  will  undertake  Saul's  so  extraordinary, 
but  so  perilous,  endowments.  Luther  says  that  we 
cannot  help  being  jealous  of  the  men  who  are  in  our 
own  circle  and  are  more  talented  than  ourselves. 
Perhaps  not.  But  if  Barnabas  had  to  get  over 
any  jealousy  in  connection  with  Saul's  coming  to 
Antioch,  that  jealousy,  at  any  rate,  did  not  hinder 
him  from  setting  out  to  Tarsus  to  seek  for  Saul. 
He  must  increase,  but  I  must  decrease,  said  Barnabas 
to  himself  and  to  his  subordinates  as  he  set  his  face 
steadfastly  to  go  down  to  Tarsus.  Barnabas  had 
taken  his  own  measure  accurately,  and  he  had  taken 
Saul's  measure  accurately  also,  and  he  took  action 
accordingly.  Now,  noble  conduct  like  that  of 
Barnabas  is  always  its  own  best  reward.  Christ- 
like conduct  like  that  instantly  reacts  on  character, 
and  character  like  Barnabas's  character  manifests 
itself  in  more  and  more  of  such  Christ-like  conduct. 
Barnabas  had  done  Saul  a  good  turn  before  now, 
and  that  only  made  him  the  more  ready  to  do  him 
this  new  good  turn  when  the  opportunity  was 
afforded  him.      "  Barnabas  was  a  good  man,  and 


234  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

full  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  faith.''  And  three 
times  he  publicly  proved  that ;  first,  when  he  sold 
his  estate  in  Cyprus  and  brought  the  money,  and 
laid  it  at  the  apostles'  feet.  And  he  proved  that 
again  when  he  took  Saul  in  his  friendlessness  and 
brought  him  to  the  apostles  in  Jerusalem,  and 
compelled  them  to  believe  in  Saul,  and  to  trust  him, 
and  to  employ  him.  And  still  more  conclusively 
did  Barnabas  prove  his  fulness  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
when  he  set  out  to  Tarsus  to  seek  for  Saul  in  order 
that  Saul  might  come  to  Antioch,  and  there  super- 
sede and  extinguish  Barnabas  himself. 

But,  as  if  to  chasten  our  too  great  pride  in  Bar- 
nabas, even  Barnabas,  this  so  pentecostal  and  so 
apostolic  man ;  even  Barnabas,  so  full  hitherto  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  and  of  faith — even  he  must  fall  at 
last,  and  that  too  all  but  fatally.  For  God  speaketh 
once,  yea  twice,  yet  man  perceiveth  it  not,  that  He 
may  withdraw  man  from  his  purpose,  and  hide 
pride  from  man.  We  would  have  been  too  much 
lifted  up  to-night  about  Barnabas  if  we  had  not 
had  his  whole  history  wTitten  to  us  down  to  the 
end.  For,  what  two  chosen  and  fast  friends  in  all 
the  New  Testament  circle  of  friends,  would  you  have 
wagered  would  be  the  last  to  fall  out  fiercely,  and 
to  turn  their  backs  on  one  another  for  ever  ?  Not 
Paul  and  Barnabas,  at  any  rate,  you  would  confi- 
dently and  proudly  have  said.  Whoever  will  quarrel, 
and  fall  out,  and  forget  what  they  owe  to  one  an 
other,  that  can  never,  by  any  possibility,  happen  to 
Paul  and  his  old  patron  Barnabas — so  you  would 
have  said.     But  you  would  have  lost  your  wager. 


BARNABAS  8S5 

and  your  confidence  in  the  best  of  men  to  boot. 
"  Let  us  go,"  said  Paul  to  Barnabas,  "  and  visit  our 
brethren  in  every  city  where  we  have  preached  the 
word  of  the  Lord  and  see  how  they  do.''  And  Bar- 
nabas determined  to  take  with  him  John,  whose 
surname  was  Mark.  And  Paul  thought  not  good 
to  take  Mark  with  them.  And  the  contention  was 
so  sharp  between  them  that  they  departed  asunder 
the  one  from  the  other.  And  Barnabas  took  Mark, 
and  Paul  chose  Silas.  Has  Paul  forgotten  all  that 
he  once  owed  to  Barnabas?  And  why  does  Bar- 
nabas's  so  sweet  and  so  holy  humility  so  fail  him 
when  he  is  so  far  on  in  the  voyage  of  life  ?  "  Mari- 
ners near  the  shore,"  says  Shepard,  "  should  be  on 
the  outlook  for  rocks."  And  Barnabas  was  so  near 
the  shore  by  this  time  that  it  distresses  us  sorely  to 
see  his  ship  strike  the  rocks  and  stagger  in  the  sea 
in  this  fashion.  Barnabas's  ship  strikes  the  rocks 
till  one  of  the  noblest  characters  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment is  shattered  and  all  but  sunk  under  our  very 
eyes.  Who  was  right  and  who  was  wrong  in  this 
sharp  contention  I  have  no  heart  to  ask.  Both 
were  wrong.  Paul,  and  Barnabas,  and  Mark  too — 
all  three  were  wrong.  And  multitudes  in  the 
Apostolic  churches  who  heard  of  the  scandal,  and 
took  contending  sides  in  it,  were  wrong  also.  And 
this  sad  story  is  told  us  to  this  day,  not  that  we 
may  take  sides  in  it,  but  that  the  like  of  it  may 
never  again  happen  amongst  ourselves. 

The  grey-haired  saint  may  fail  at  last. 
The  surest  guide  a  wanderer  prove ; 

Death  only  binds  us  fast 

To  the  bright  shore  of  love. 


236  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

The  last  time  we  see  Barnabas,  sad  to  say,  Paul 
and  he  are  contending  again.  But  I  will  not  draw 
you  into  that  contention.  We  have  had  instruc- 
tion, and  example,  and  warning,  and  rebuke,  enough 
out  of  Barnabas  already.  Instruction  and  ex- 
ample in  Barnabas's  splendid  liberality  with 
his  Cyprus  possessions.  Instruction  and  example 
in  his  openness  and  hospitality  of  mind  and  heart 
toward  a  suspected  and  a  friendless  man.  And 
still  more  instruction  and  example  in  his  noble 
absence  of  all  envy  and  all  jealousy  of  a  man  far 
more  gifted,  far  more  successful,  and  soon  to  be  far 
more  famous  than  himself.  And,  then,  this  warn- 
ing and  this  rebuke  also,  that  at  the  end  of  such 
a  life,  even  Paul  and  Barnabas  should  contend  so 
sharply  with  one  another  that  they  scandalised  the 
whole  Church  of  Christ,  and  departed  asunder  never 
to  meet  again,  unless  it  was  to  dispute  again  in 
this  world. 

Let  not  the  people  be  too  swift  to  judge. 
As  one  who  reckons  on  the  blades  in  field 
Or  ere  the  crop  be  ripe.     For  I  have  seen 
The  thorn  frown  rudely  all  the  winter  long 
And  after  bear  the  rose  upon  its  top ; 
And  barque,  that  all  the  way  across  the  sea, 
Ran  straight  and  speedy,  perish  at  the  last. 
Even  in  the  haven's  mouth. 

The  evening  praises  the  day,  and  the  chief  grace 
of  the  theatre  is  the  last  scene.  Be  thou  faithful 
unto  death,  and  I  will  give  thee  a  crown  of  life. 


JAMES  THE  LORD'S  BROTHER         237 


XCVI 

JAMES  THE   LORD'S  BROTHER 

OFTEN  imagine  myself  to  be  James. 
I  far  oftener  imagine  myself  to  be  in 
James''s  place  and  experience,  than  in 
the  place  and  experience  of  any  other 
man  in  the  whole  Bible,  or  in  the 
whole  world.  The  first  thirty  years  of  James's  life 
fascinate  me  and  enthral  me  far  more  than  all  the  rest 
of  human  life  and  human  history  taken  together. 
And  I  feel  sure  that  I  am  not  alone  in  that  fascina- 
tion of  mine.  Who,  indeed,  would  not  be  absol- 
utely captivated,  fascinated,  and  enthralled,  both  in 
imagination  and  in  heart,  at  the  thought  of  holding 
James's  relationship  to  Jesus  Christ!  For  thirty 
years  eating  every  meal  at  the  same  table  with  Him ; 
working  six  days  of  the  week  in  the  same  workshop 
with  Him ;  going  up  on  the  seventh  day  to  the  same 
synagogue  with  Him  ;  and  once  every  year  going  up 
to  Jerusalem  to  the  same  passover  with  Him.  For 
James  was,  actually,  the  Lord's  brother.  Not  in  a 
figure  of  speech.  Not  mystically  and  spiritually. 
But  literally  and  actually — he  was  James  the  Lord's 
brother.  Jesus  was  Mary's  first-bom  son,  and  James 
was  her  second  son.     And  the  child  James  would  be 


258  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

the  daily  delight  of  his  elder  Brother ;  he  would  be 
His  continual  charge  and  joy ;  just  as  you  see  two 
such  brothers  in  your  own  family  life  at  home. 
When  Mary's  first-born  Son  was  twelve  years  old  it 
was  the  law  of  Moses  that  He  should  be  taken 
up  to  Jerusalem  to  His  first  passover.  James  was 
not  old  enough  yet  for  his  first  passover,  but  you 
may  be  sure  he  missed  nothing  with  his  father  and 
mother  and  Brother  to  tell  him  all  about  Jerusalem 
and  the  passover  when  they  came  home  ;  James  both 
hearing  his  elder  Brother  and  asking  Him  questions. 
For  the  next  eighteen  years  Joseph's  door  is  her- 
metically shut  to  our  holy  curiosity.  All  we  know 
is,  that  one,  at  any  rate,  of  Joseph's  household  was 
filled  with  wisdom,  and  the  grace  of  God  was  upon 
Him.  Not  another  syllable  more  is  told  us  about 
Joseph  or  Mary,  or  any  of  their  household,  till  the 
preaching  of  the  Baptist  broke  in  on  that  house,  as 
on  all  the  houses  of  the  land,  like  the  coming  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.  John  and  his  baptism  was  the 
talk  of  week-day  and  Sabbath-day  in  Nazareth, 
as  in  all  the  land,  till  at  last  a  company  of  young 
carpenters  and  fishermen  went  south  to  Bethabara 
beyond  Jordan  where  John  was  baptizing.  And 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  known  as  yet  by  that  name  only, 
was  one  of  them.  You  have  by  heart  all  that  im- 
mediately took  place  at  the  Jordan.  "  Behold  th^ 
I^mb  of  God,  which  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the 
world.  We  have  found  the  Messiah.  We  have 
found  Him,  of  whom  Moses  in  the  law,  and  the 
prophets,  did  write,  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the  son  of 
Joseph.     Rabbi,  Thou  art  the  Son  of  God,  Thou 


JAMES  THE  LORD'S  BROTHER         259 

art  the  King  of  Israel.  And  Jesus  returned  in  the 
power  of  the  Spirit  into  Galilee.  And  He  came  to 
Nazareth  where  He  was  brought  up;  and,  as  His 
custom  was,  He  went  into  the  synagogue  on  the 
Sabbath-day  and  stood  up  for  to  read.  And  there 
was  delivered  to  Him  the  book  of  the  prophet 
Esaias.  And  when  He  had  opened  the  book  He 
found  the  place  where  it  was  written,  The  Spirit  of 
the  Lord  is  upon  Me,  because  He  hath  anointed  Me 
to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  poor ;  He  hath  sent  Me 
to  heal  the  broken-hearted,  to  preach  deliverance  to 
the  captive,  and  recovering  of  sight  to  the  blind,  to 
set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bound,  to  preach  the 
acceptable  year  of  the  Lord.  And  all  bear  Him 
witness,  and  wondered  at  the  gracious  words  which 
proceeded  out  of  His  mouth."  But,  all  the  time, 
James  His  brother  did  not  believe  on  Him.  No, 
nor  did  James  believe  down  to  the  very  end.  I  wish 
I  had  the  learning  and  the  genius  to  let  you  see  and 
hear  all  that  must  have  gone  on  in  Joseph's  house  for 
the  next  three  years.  The  family  perplexities  about 
Jesus ;  the  family  reasonings  about  Him  ;  the  family 
divisions  and  disputes  about  Him ;  their  intoxicating 
hopes  at  one  time  over  Him,  and  their  fears  and 
sinkings  of  heart  because  of  Him  at  another  time. 
Think  out  for  yourselves  those  three  years,  the  like 
of  which  never  came  to  any  other  family  on  the  face 
of  the  earth.  And,  then,  think  of  the  last  week  of 
all ;  the  arrest,  the  trial,  the  crucifixion,  the  resur- 
rection of  Mary's  first-born  Son — whose  imagination 
is  sufficient  to  picture  to  itself  Joseph  and  Mary  and 
James  and  the  other  brothers  and  sisters  of  Jesus  all 


240  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

that  week !  Where  did  they  make  ready  to  eat  the 
passover  ?  What  were  they  doing  at  the  hour  when 
He  was  in  Gethsemane  ?  Were  they  standing  with 
the  crowd  in  the  street  when  He  was  led  about  all 
night  in  His  bonds  ?  And  where  were  they  while 
He  was  being  crucified  ?  For,  by  that  time,  no  one 
believed  on  Him  but  the  thief  on  the  cross  alone.  All 
the  faith  in  Christ  that  survived  the  cross  was  bound 
up  in  that  bundle  of  smoking  flax,  the  penitent  and 
praying  thief.  The  next  time  we  come  on  James  is 
in  these  golden  words  of  Paul  written  concerning 
him  long  afterwards,  "and  that  Jesus  Christ  was 
buried,  and  that  He  rose  the  third  day  according  tc 
the  scriptures.  After  that.  He  was  seen  of  James ; 
then  of  all  the  apostles."  He  was  seen  of  James 
somewhere,  and  to  somewhat  of  the  same  result,  that 
He  was  seen  of  Saul  at  the  gate  of  Damascus. 

Three  years  pass  on,  during  the  progress  of  which 
James  has  risen  to  be  one  of  the  pillars  of  the  Church 
of  Jerusalem.  James's  high  character,  and  his  close 
relationship  to  Jesus  Christ,  taken  together  with  his 
conservative  tone  of  mind,  all  combined  to  give  him 
his  unique  position  of  influence  and  authority  ir 
the  Church  of  Jerusalem.  We  have  a  life-like 
portrait  of  James  as  he  appeared  to  the  men  oJ 
his  day  which  it  will  interest  and  impress  you  tc 
look  at  for  a  moment.  "Now,  James  was  hoi} 
from  his  mother's  womb.  He"  drank  no  wine  oi 
strong  drink.  He  ate  no  animal  food.  No  razor  evei 
went  on  his  head.  He  anointed  not  himself  with 
oil,  and  used  not  the  indulgence  of  the  bath.  He 
wore  no  wool,  but  linen  only,  and  he  was  such  a 


JAMES  THE  LORD'S  BROTHER         241 

man  of  prayer  that  when  they  came  to  coffin  him  his 
knees  were  as  hard  and  as  stiff  to  bend  as  the  knees  of 
a  camel.  On  account  of  the  sternness  of  his  character 
he  was  called  James  the  Just,  and  James  the  bulwark 
of  the  people."  Now,  in  that  contemporary  account 
of  James  may  we  not  have  a  clue  to  the  obstinacy 
of  his  unbelief,  and  to  his  all  but  open  hostility  to 
our  Lord  ?  For  James  was  a  Nazarite  of  such  strict- 
ness and  scrupulosity  that  he  could  not  fail  to  be 
greatly  offended  at  his  Brother's  absolute  and  reso- 
lute freedom  from  all  such  unspiritual  trammels. 
James's  eldest  Brother  was  no  Nazarite.  He  was 
no  Scribe.  He  was  no  Pharisee.  And  He  must 
often  have  stumbled  James,  so  far  did  He  come 
short  of  a  perfect  righteousness,  as  James  understood 
and  demanded  perfect  righteousness.  In  His  public 
preaching  He  was  compelled  to  denounce  what 
James  scrupulously  practised  as  the  law  of  Moses 
and  the  law  of  God.  The  Scribes  and  the  Pharisees 
were  continually  finding  fault  with  James's  Brother 
for  His  laxity  in  the  traditions  of  the  elders,  and 
no  man  would  feel  that  laxity  so  acutely  as  James 
would  feel  it.  So  rooted  was  James  in  the  old 
covenant  that,  even  after  his  conversion,  he  still 
continued  to  cleave  fast  to  his  unevangelical  habits 
of  thought  and  practices  of  life,  in  a  way  and  to 
an  extent  that  caused  the  greatest  trouble  to  the 
rest  of  the  apostles,  and  to  Paul  especially.  In  our 
Lord's  words,  James,  all  his  days,  was  one  of  those 
men,  and  a  leader  among  them,  who  continued  to 
pour  the  new  wine  of  the  gospel  into  the  old  bottles 
of  the  law,  till  the  old  bottles  burst  in  their  hands 


242  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

and  the  new  wine  was  spilled.  Converted  as  he 
undoubtedly  was,  James  was  half  a  Pharisee  to 
the  very  end.  And,  if  ever  he  was  a  bishop  at  all, 
he  was  the  bishop  of  a  half- enlightened  Jewish  ghetto 
rather  than  of  a  Christian  church.  Still,  when  all 
is  said,  we  have  an  intense  interest  in  James;  not  so 
much  for  his  position  or  for  his  services  in  the 
apostolic  church,  as  for  this,  that  he  was  the  brother, 
the  born  and  brought-up  brother,  of  our  Lord. 

James  was  the  born  and  brought-up  brother  of 
our  Lord,  and,  by  that,  he  being  dead,  yet  speaketh. 
And  the  one  supreme  lesson  that  James  teaches  us 
to-night  is  surely  this,  'Keep  your  eyes  open  at 
home,  for  I  made  this  tremendous  mistake.  The 
unpardonable  and  irreparable  mistake  of  my  whole 
life  was  this,  that  my  eyes  were  never  opened  at  home 
till  it  was  too  late.  I  never  once  saw  what  was 
for  thirty  years,  day  and  night,  staring  me  in  the 
face,  if  I  had  not  been  stone-blind.  It  never  entered 
my  mind  all  those  years  that  He  was  any  better 
than  I  was  myself.  Indeed,  I  often  blamed  Him 
that  He  was  not  nearly  so  good  as  myself.  But  I 
remember  now:  we  all  remember  now,  endless  in- 
stances of  His  goodness.  His  meekness,  His  humility. 
His  lowliness  of  mind  and  heart.  We  often  recall 
to  one  another  how  we  all  took  our  own  way  with 
Him,  and  got  our  own  way  with  Him  in  everything. 
How  silent  He  was  when  we  were  all  speaking,  and 
would  not  hold  our  peace.  How  obliging  He  was, 
how  gentle,  how  sweet.  But,  all  the  time,  we  saw 
it  not  till  it  was  all  over,  and  it  was  too  late.'  The 
kingdom   of  heaven  did  not  come  with  sufficient 


JAMES  THE  LORD'S  BROTHER         243 

observation  to  James.  Had  his  elder  Brother  been 
a  Pharisee,  had  He  been  a  Scribe,  had  He  been  a 
John  the  Baptist,  had  His  raiment  been  of  camePs 
hair,  had  His  meat  been  locusts  and  wild  honey, 
and  had  He  had  His  dwelling  among  the  rocks, 
James  would  have  found  it  far  easier  to  believe  in 
his  Brother.  But  the  still  small  voice  of  a  holy 
life  at  home  made  no  impression  on  James.  Yes : 
let  us  all  acknowledge  James's  tremendous  mistake, 
and  let  us  all  go  home  with  our  eyes  opened  lest 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  may  have  come  to  our  own 
house  also,  and  we  may  not  see  that  till  it  is  too 
late.  A  Christian  character  may  be  displayed  before 
our  eyes  at  home,  and  we  may  never  discover  it, 
just  because  it  is  at  home.  Ay,  and  let  us  beware 
of  this,  lest  our  hard  ways,  our  proud  ways,  our 
selfish  tempers  and  our  want  of  love,  may  all  bt* 
the  daily  cross  and  thorn  of  some  child  of  God 
hidden  from  our  eyes  in  our  own  homes,  as  James 
was  to  Jesus.  Out  of  doors  many  began  to  believe 
in  James's  Brother,  but  no  one  indoors.  In  His 
own  home,  and  among  His  own  brothers  and  sisters, 
our  Lord  had  no  recognition  and  no  honour. 

And  James  is  a  warning  to  us  all  in  this  respect 
also,  that  he  never,  to  the  very  end,  became  a  true 
and  complete  New  Testament  believer.  Whether 
it  was  that  he  had  been  too  long  an  unbeliever,  and 
never  could  make  up  for  the  opportunities  he  had 
lost ;  or  whether  it  was  that  he  yielded  to  his  natural 
temper  too  much,  and  let  it  take  too  deep  a  hold 
of  him ;  or  whether  it  was  that  he  was  never  able  to 
suppress  himself  so  as  to  submit  to  sit  at  Paul's 


244  BIBLE  CHARACTERS 

feet ;  or  whether  it  was  that  he  could  never  shake 
off  the  hard  and  narrow  men  who  hampered  and 
hindered  him ;  or  whether  it  was  his  life-long  chastise- 
ment and  impoverishment  for  neglecting  the  incom- 
parably glorious  opportunity  God  had  given  him 
for  thirty- three  years, — whatever  was  the  true  ex- 
planation of  it,  the  fact  is  only  too  clear  on  too 
many  pages  of  the  New  Testament,  that  James, 
all  his  days,  was  far  more  of  a  Jew  than  a  genuine 
Christian.  His  canonical  Epistle  itself  belongs 
more  to  the  Old  Testament  than  to  the  New. 
Luther  felt  afterwards  that  he  had  gone  too  far 
in  what  he  had  said  in  his  haste  about  the  Epistle 
of  James.  But  every  one  who  knows  and  loves  and 
lives  upon  PauFs  Gospel  as  Luther  did,  will  some- 
times feel  something  of  Luther's  mind  about  James 
and  his  Epistle.  Though  his  risen  Brother  appeared 
to  James  as  he  appeared  to  Paul,  at  the  same  time, 
God  could  never  be  said  to  have  manifested  His 
Son  in  James  as  He  had  manifested  Him  in  Paul. 
Account  for  it  as  we  may :  brother  of  our  Lord, 
Bishop  of  Jerusalem,  pillar  of  that  Church  as  he 
was  and  all,  James  never  came  within  sight  of  Paul 
as  a  New  Testament  saint  of  Christ  and  an  evan- 
gelical apostle.  James  never  entered  himself,  and 
he  never  led  his  people,  into  the  glorious  liberty  of 
the  sons  of  God.  Surely  a  most  solemn  warning  to 
us,  that  our  natural  tempers,  our  traditional  pre- 
judices, our  early  sympathies,  the  school  of  life  and 
thought  and  worship  in  which  we  have  been  brought 
up,  and  our  not  ignoble  loyalty  to  that  form  of 
doctrine  into  which  we  were  in  our  youth  delivered, 


JAMES  THE  LORD'S  BROTHER  245 

— all  that  may  stand  in  our  way ;  all  that  may  have 
to  be  fought  against  and  conquered ;  if  we  are  ever 
to  come  in  the  unity  of  the  faith,  and  of  the  know- 
ledge of  the  Son  of  God,  unto  a  perfect  man, 
unto  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of 
Christ. 


Printed  by  T.  and  A.  Constable,  Printers  to  His  Majesty 
at  the  Edinburgh  University  Press 


\4 


DATE  DUE 


mo3 


A;V    2   4 


of^rM 


1995i 


OCT^^  fia 


GAYLCRD 


PRINTED  IN  U.S 


